The Selected Papers of Wolf Ladejinsky AgraRrian efor m' as Unfinished Business UNN-188 ~5 ;" r-4 ii Louis f. T&'linsky, Editor Cover photo by Carl Purcell, U.S. Agency for International Development. An Indian field-worker harvests rice on experimental fields of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Agrarian Reform as Unfinished Business 必．＿一嘛。喘 露 111 I -i ve Selected PaPers of Wolf Ladejinsky Agrarian Reform as Unfinieshed Busl*ness Lou *s J. Wahnsky-, Editor PubliShed for the World Bank Oxford UnIversity Press Oxford University Press NEW YORK OXFORD LONDON GLASGOW TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE JAKARTA HONG KONG TOKYO DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI @ 1977 by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433 U.S.A. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Manufactured in the United States of America. The views and interpretations in this book are those of the author and editor and should not be attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to any individual acting in their behalf. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ladejinsky, Wolf Isaac Agrarian reform as unfinished business: the selected papers of Wolf Ladejinsky. Bibliography: p. 580 Includes index. 1. Land reform-Asia-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Walinsky, Louis Joseph, 1908- II. Title. HD843.2.L3 1977 333.1'095 77-24254 ISBN 0-19-920095-5 ISBN 0-19-920098-X pbk. FOREWORD THE READER IS ABOUT TO EMBARK on a voyage which spans decades of agriculture history in a score of developing countries. The perspective offered should be valuable to anyone concerned with the unfinished business of alleviating rural poverty. These studies in agrarian policy and land reform also provide a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of an extra- ordinary man. They have been edited with love and care. The collection is a splendid one, and I would not detain the reader at all if it were not appropriate to say something about why this book came into being under the auspices of the World Bank. For this is not the kind of publication which the World Bank normally sponsors. It does not conform to accepted canons of modern economic research. Nor does it derive entirely from experience with development projects of the Bank. It is unencumbered by equations and quite free of economic jargon. Its beautifully crafted language has an unusual, almost archaic flavor. But then, Wolf Ladejinsky was an unlikely member of the World Bank staff. Some may have thought of him as old-fashioned. Yet he was worrying about the rural poor and doing something to help them in Japan and elsewhere long before they became uppermost in the preoccupations of development economists. He joined the Bank some years after the normal retirement age. Hence, the bulk of the papers presented here were produced when Wolf Ladejinsky was working for institutions other than the World Bank. In any event, his was a fiercely independent mind, unfettered by insti- tutional and conventional constraints. He spoke for peasants everywhere with urgency and realism. Indeed, it was because of his fresh approach to the development problems of traditional rural societies that I recommended that he join the agricultural team led by Sir John Crawford which eventually put forward major agriculture policy recommendations to the government of India and the World Bank in 1966, on the eve of what came to be known as the Green Revolution. Wolf Ladejinsky made a notable contribution to the work of this mission, and I subsequently asked him to remain in the service of the Bank. He did so until his death on July 3, 1975. He toiled hard until the very end, keeping tabs on the huge agricultural and rural sector of India, with occasional and fruitful forays in neighboring countries. He was a tireless traveler, a voracious reader, and a patient listener. He knew how to get farmers and petty officials to talk and tell all. His reports were based on firsthand observation. They had an impact because the author was known as a man passionately dedicated to ferreting out and reporting the truth. He rarely reported good news and never succumbed to the self-adulation prevalent v vi FOREWORD among even the most enlightened of bureaucracies. As a result, he made enemies as well as friends. But his stature grew and, on the whole, given his obvious sincerity and his abiding intolerance of avoidable poverty, he was able to speak and write without giving offense where others would have remained silent. Because of his selfless dedication to the realities of the development business, Wolf Ladejinsky never took the time to collect his writings in order to reach a wide audience. Yet the concerns eloquently expressed in this volume have become central to the task of development administrators everywhere and are arousing growing interest in the academic community and among the public at large. Given the new orientation toward rural develop- ment of World Bank lending, it is appropriate and timely for the World Bank to disseminate the insights and views-however controversial-of Wolf Ladejinsky, one of the few truly original development thinkers and practitioners of our times. I. P. M. CARGILL Vice President, Finance The World Bank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THANKS ARE DUE TO MANY PERSONS for invaluable assistance in locating and making available Ladejinsky's writings, for providing information about him and his work, for suggestions as to the selection of papers for inclusion, for comments on the introduction, and for editorial and other assistance. This appreciation is no less warm for the brevity with which it is expressed. Robert Picciotto collected the papers prepared under the World Bank's auspices. Charles Olsen of the Joint World Bank-International Monetary Fund Library searched and provided copies of published papers. Eldon Jones, Ford Foundation archivist, searched and provided copies of papers and letters from the foundation's archives. Similar assistance was provided by T. H. Shen for the Joint (U.S. and China) Commission on Rural Reconstruction; Gladys Baker, Gill Picquette, and Penny Cate for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Barbara Ennis and Betty Donovan for the U.S. State Department; and Helen F. Ulibarri for the U.S. National Archives. Marsha Swiss and Mr. and Mrs. Peyton Kerr, Ladejinsky's executors, granted free access to his personal papers and full discretion as to their use. Colleagues, associates, and friends of Wolf Ladejinsky who provided enlightening informa- tion about the man and his work at various stages of his career included Moishe Borotkin, David Hopper, Abe Weisblat, Nathan Koffsky, Martin Abel, Shigaharu Takahashi, Horst Eschenberg, William Gilmartin, Robert Fearey, Ferdinand Kuhn and Delia Kuhn, General E. G. Lansdale, and Raymond Moyer. Professor Abel, Sir John Crawford, Mr. Gilmartin, John Mellor, and Arun Shourie offered suggestions with respect to the selection of papers for inclusion. Anne Hamilton, Roberta Leary, and Messrs. Abel, Gilmartin, Picciotto, Koffsky, Enrique Lerdau, Ashok Mitra, Gregory Votaw, and Robert Nathan offered valuable editorial comments and suggestions on the Introduction. Mr. Mitra generously granted permission to cite in full his published tribute to Ladejinsky. Roberta Leary provided helpful editorial assistance and efficient organization of index materials; Marlene Houben and Martha Sanchez Gaviro provided invaluable secretarial assistance; Rachel C. Anderson and Jane Carroll provided technical editing, Mrs. Anderson prepared the index, and Brian J. Svikhart supervised the production of the book; John Adler, Vittoria Winterton, and Jivat Thadani were most helpful with respect to administrative and logistic arrangements. Anne Hamilton and Messrs. Adler, Gilmartin, Picciotto, Votaw, and Yudelman of the World Bank took a special and continuing interest in the project from its inception and lent it their support. I. P. M. Cargill, who initiated and took chief responsibility for the project, is due special thanks for his interest, encouragement, and support throughout. I should record here that the World Bank imposed no constraints other than space on the selection or presentation of these papers. As the editor I have had a free hand and take sole responsibility for any errors of taste or judgment which may be found. Louis J. WALINSKY vii TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vii INTRODUCTION 3 I. THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 23 1. Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union, March 1934 (two excepts) 24 2. Soviet State Grain Farms, October 1938 (conclusion) 28 3. Agricultural Problems of India, August 1939 (selection) 30 4. Japan's Agricultural Crisis, August 1939 39 5. Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems, February 1940 (selection) 49 6. Agriculture of the Netherlands Indies, September 1940 (excerpt) 58 7. Agricultural Policies of British Malaya, April 1941 61 II. THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 67 8. Farm Tenancy in Japan, June 1947 68 9. Trial Balance in Japan, October 1948 (excerpt) 93 10. The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations, September 1949 95 11. Land Commissions in Japan, September 1949 109 12. Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program, October 1949 113 13. Too Late to Save Asia? July 1950 130 14. Rural Reconstruction under the China Aid Act, August 1950 136 15. Observations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan, June 1951 (summary and conclusions) 142 16. Front a Landlord to a Land Reformer, June 1951 148 17. The Plow Outbids the Sword in Asia, June 1951 151 18. Field Observations in the Punjab, October 1952 154 19. Land Reform Observations in Madras, November 1952 162 20. Land Reform Observations in Kashmir, November 1952 178 21. Comments on Land Reform in India, December 1952 189 22. A Contnent on the Report of the Ford Foundation Conference on Land Tenure, March 1953 198 ix x CONTENTS 23. The Status of the Land Reform Program in India, August 1954 (conclusions) 201 24. Advancing Human Welfare, November 1954 204 III. THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 215 25. Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam, April 1955 217 26. Field Trip in Southern Vietnam, April 1955 229 27. A Visit with President Ngo Dinh Diem, June 1955 239 28. South Vietnam Revisited, July 1955 243 29. U.S. Aid for Land Reform in Vietnam, July 1956 268 30. Making the Pending Land Redistribution Program More Practicable, October 1956 271 31. Toward a More Effective U.S. Aid Program in Vietnam, November 1956 275 32. Agrarian Revolution in Asia, April 1957 279 33. Agrarian Revolution in Japan, October 1959 280 34. Self-description/Appraisal, June 1960 289 35. Exploration of Job in Nepal, November 1960 290 36. Nepal's Five-year Plan, November 1960 294 37. Land Reform in Indonesia, January 1967 297 38. Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam, 1961 299 39. Corporate Farm Management for Japan? June 1961 312 IV. THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 315 40. Tenurial Conditions in Nepal, February 1962 316 41. India after the China Border Clash, November 1962 324 42. Visit to the Philippines, January 1963 325 43. Agrarian Reform in Nepal, March 1963 332 44. Tenurial Conditions and the Package Program in India, 1963 (summary and sample recommendations) 336 45. Land Reform in Indonesia, February 1964 340 46. The Industrialization Bias in Economic Development, February 1964 352 47. Land Reform, July 1964 354 V. THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 367 48. Agrarian Reform in India, October 1965 369 49. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors, June 1968 405 50. Punjab Field Trip, April 1969 432 51. Bihar Field Trip, July 1969 442 52. Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations, April 1970 462 53. A Note on Agriculture Reforms, August 1970 (summary) 474 54. Field Trip to Eastern Uttar Pradesh, May 1971 475 55. Agriculture-Problems and Needs, May 1971 (selection) 481 56. Refugees in West Bengal, August 1971 487 57. Agriculture-Issues and Programs, May 1972 (selection) 493 58. Drought in Maharashtra: Not in a Hundred Years, January 1973 514 59. The Rural Scene, May 1973 (selection) 532 60. Agrarian Reform a la Punjab, September 1973 542 Contents xi 61. Agrarian Reform in the Philippines, October 1974 550 62. Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? December 1974 557 APPENDIXES 567 A. The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum, October 26, 1945 569 B. SCAP Directive 411 on Rural Land Reform, December 9, 1945 579 Chronological Bibliography of Wolf Ladejinsky 580 Depository Libraries for the Ladejinsky Papers 586 INDEX 589 Agrarian Reform as Unfinished Business INTRODUCTION J ROM THE END OF 1945 WHEN HE was posted to Japan to assist General Douglas MacArthur in planning the postwar land reform there, Wolf Ladejinsky spent the last thirty years of his life almost entirely in Asia. These three decades were devoted to the cause of agrarian reform on behalf of the hundreds of millions of submarginal farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and landless laborers who had become his human as well as his professional concern, and whose cause he had made his own. Another, broader concern was at least equally compelling. Having grown to young manhood in Czarist Russia in the midst of the impoverishment, alienation, indignity, and persecution that characterized life in the restricted Jewish community (shtetl), and having experienced at first hand the brutalities that accompanied the Bolshevik revolution, Ladejinsky had a passionate dedication to democracy. This had been intensified by the holocaust Hitler visited upon European Jewry during World War II. Ladejinsky thus committed himself entirely to the survival and flourishing of democracy in the newly independent countries of Asia. Such an outcome, he was convinced, depended on satisfying the basic needs and yearnings of impoverished rural Asians for a bit of land they could call their own, or at least for security of tenure and a tolerable rent on the land they cultivated for absentee and exploitative landowners. Only in this way could they escape from the grinding poverty and personal indignity they were increasingly unwilling passively to accept. Aware of how powerfully Lenin's promise of "land to the tiller" had influenced the Russian peasantry to accept and support the revolution, all too soon to be dispossessed again in favor of collective and state farms, Ladejinsky developed a profound sense of the political role of the land. He recognized the importance of ownership, tenurial rights, and the distribution of the land's rewards in determining whether democracy would indeed survive in Asia or whether its rural masses would succumb to the Communists' promise. Ladejinsky's major contribution to the highly successful land reform in Japan (1946-48) brought him almost instant renown and led to requests for his advice and assistance in many other lands.! He made a significant contribution to the equally successful land reform in 1. Ironically, this recognition became even more pronounced following the notoriety which Lade- jinsky received late in 1954. When responsibility for the work of agricultural attaches abroad was turned back to the Department of Agriculture by the State Department, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Benson refused to re-employ Ladejinsky on the ground that he was a "national security risk." The outpouring of support for Ladejinsky which then ensued from the press, professional associates, the Japanese government, and farm organizations and individuals in the United States soon forced a retraction and apology from Secretary Benson and a revision in U.S. national security procedures. It also made Ladejinsky and the general nature of his overseas work known to millions, both at home and abroad. 3 4 INTRODUCTION Taiwan in the early postwar years, encouraged and provided guidance to agrarian reform efforts in India in the early 1950s, was a prime mover in less well-known land reform successes in South Vietnam in the late 1950s, and encouraged and provided guidance to incipient agrarian reform stirrings in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the early 1960s. Most of his last ten years were spent fighting, against enormous odds, to channel ineffectual agrarian reform efforts in India into more constructive and practical channels and trying to generate the political will without which meaningful reforms could not be implemented. If, in consequence, he came to be regarded by many as "Mr. Land Reform," this was in a sense a misnomer. For humanity was his deeper cause and, for him, human welfare and dignity in Asia could be promoted only under democracy, not under Communism, which he saw as the only likely alternative. Antecedents Wolf Isaac Ladejinsky was born in 1899 in Ekaterinopol, a small town or hamlet in the Russian Ukraine. His father was engaged in flour milling and the timber trade-a man of relative means in a predominantly Jewish community in the Pale of Settlement to which Jews were by law restricted. Precluded from farming and most urban occupations, Russian Jews were almost uniformly poor or on the verge of destitution. Demeaned and persecuted at best, and subjected at worst to periodic pogroms, they were able to endure only by nurturing a close communality and an intensely religious inner life. The more intellectual and spiritual among them escaped into religious studies. The relatively few who achieved a degree of material success, as did Ladejinsky's father, enjoyed some prestige in the community (witness Tevya's song, "If I Were a Rich Man," in Fiddler on the Roof); but genuine reverence and honor were accorded only to learning and the learned-in the shterl, invariably rabbis and biblical scholars. This tradition led Ladejinsky to scholarship. One of the very few of his local peers who completed the Gymnasium (the secular secondary school), he also attended in his younger years the elementary cheder for Hebrew and religious instruction. Little is known of how the Ladejinsky family fared after their properties were expropriated by the revolution. According to one report, his brother was killed in the civil war. In 1921, two years after completing his studies, Lade jinsky walked out of the Soviet Union into Romania. He worked briefly in a flour mill and as a baker's apprentice before getting a job in Bucharest with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. But the United States-the "Golden Land" which, from the 1880s to World War I, had drawn perhaps a third of all East European Jewry as immigrants-was almost surely his destination from the time he left home. The following year, 1922, with a group of Jewish orphans who had been entrusted to his care for the journey, Ladejinsky entered the United States. A variety of odd jobs sustained him while he learned enough English to enter Columbia University in 1926 and then while he earned his degree, which was granted in 1928. He sold newspapers at a stand on Sixth Avenue and 50th Street in New York City while he continued his graduate work in economics and history into the early 1930s. His first published paper, the classic "Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union," apparently was intended to have been his doctoral dissertation. In the early years of the Great Depression, however, Ladejinsky withdrew from the university and accepted a post with the Department of Agriculture offered by Rexford Tugwell, one of his professors, who had been called to Washington by the newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This job launched a Introduction 5 richly productive professional career that was to span four decades, terminating only with Ladejinsky's death while serving as a member of the World Bank's resident mission in New Delhi. Work Career Ladejinsky's first eleven years in the U.S. government's service (1935-45) were spent in Washington with the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the Department of Agri- culture. Here his work was essentially scholarly. Working from source materials and internal documents, he completed for publication in the department's official journal some twenty-odd studies of agriculture, mostly in Asian countries. Although many of these were quite conven- tional (such as "Agriculture in Manchuria-Possibilities for Expansion," "The Japanese Cotton-Textile Industry and American Cotton," "Japan's Food Self-Sufficiency," and "Thailand's Agricultural Economy"), others made important contributions to the crystallization of Ladejinsky's interests, ideas, and values and to the shaping of his later career. His 1937 study of "Farm Tenancy and Japanese Agriculture" was his first major venture into tenurial problems outside the Soviet Union. Together with his 1939 Foreign Affairs article, "Agrarian Unrest in Japan," it established him as the Department of Agriculture's expert on Japanese agriculture. When it later became Allied policy to "democratize" a defeated Japan, it was thus only natural that Ladejinsky would be called upon to assist in planning a thoroughgoing land reform in that country. His 1938 study of "Soviet State Farms" strengthened his already strong antipathies to forced collectivization, to the imposition of rigid central plans, policies, and administration on highly disparate agricultural production situations, and to measures which either violated the independence and integrity of the individual cultivator or smothered his incentive to produce. In 1939 Ladejinsky's substantial study of "Agricultural Problems in India" provided a solid base for his future work in that country and introduced him to tenurial and other problems in India's complex agricultural economy. For the first time he faced the severity of India's population problem and the limitations that the land-man ratio would necessarily impose on any future efforts at urgently needed agrarian reforms. Wartime studies of agricultural policy in colonial situations, such as "Agricultural Policies in British Malaya" and "Manchurian Agriculture under Japanese Control," confirmed his convictions that peasant cultivators could be constructively led, given an appreciation of their interests, but that they could not be manipulated or successfully controlled to act in ways contrary to their perceived interests. By the time Ladejinsky arrived in Tokyo to participate in the Japanese land reform effort, he had served his apprenticeship. Already in his middle years, he was a man who had experienced and studied much, reflected deeply, and developed powerful convictions. He was a man strong enough to impress General MacArthur. Ladejinsky never wrote about his own role in the Japanese land reform, although many have credited him with having been its chief architect. While the State Department was still undecided on the matter, General MacArthur decided to proceed with land reform on the basis of a memorandum presented to him by his political adviser on October 26, 1945 (see Appendix A). This memorandum was the outcome of intensive consultations with Wolf Ladejinsky in Washington.' Agricultural specialists attached to the occupation headquarters 2. Robert Fearey, who prepared the memorandum, is the authority for this statement. 6 INTRODUCTION thereupon got to work, concentrating largely on the Fearey memorandum and Ladejinsky's earlier studies. Ladejinsky himself was called to Japan in December. Meanwhile the key SCAP' Directive 411, issued by order of General MacArthur December 9, instructed the Japanese government to submit by March 15, 1946, a program for rural land reform and established basic guidelines for such a program (see Appendix B). After almost a year of intensive study, planning, and negotiations back and forth with the Japanese, legislation acceptable to the occupation authorities was enacted. During this period, according to the official historian, Ladejinsky "knew more as a student about the general topic of land reform in its historical, political and economic aspects than anyone else. His tremendous enthusiasm was a continuous energizing factor in its accomplishment. Ladejinsky was the brilliant, indefatigable salesman of ideas about land tenure. His enthusiasm brooked no obstacles. Not even the sacred precincts of high military rank prevented his carrying the gospel directly to the fountainhead of all authority."' The fountainhead, of course, was General MacArthur. But Ladejinsky was also getting out into the countryside, in what was to become the hallmark of his working method, to obtain first-hand information on the attitudes of tenants and landlords toward the land reform then under consideration. These field observations are in part recorded in his "Landlord versus Tenant in Japan" and are reflected in the more substantial "Farm Tenancy in Japan," which updated and went beyond his earlier studies and obviously did much to shape the final land reform program. For Ladejinsky himself, these field trips in Japan and his face-to-face contacts and communication with hundreds of Japanese peasants resulted in another kind of shaping-an internal one. When intellectuals from the shtel background encountered modernization in a new setting, they typically sublimated their traditionally intense inner religious life by turning to Zionism, socialism, or trade unionism (with, to be sure, a heavily socialist tinge). Ladejinsky's scholarly vocation, had he remained in Washington, might well have found complementary expression in such a way. (He did, indeed, develop very strong feelings about Israel, to which, in his will, he left the beautiful Oriental works of art he had lovingly collected over the years.) But the peasants, their wives, and children whom he encountered in the countryside he did not see as primarily Japanese. He saw them as human beings in desperate need of help to achieve a bit of the security and dignity, and the prospect of a better life for their children, to which all human beings were entitled. His humanity, his sense of social justice, were deeply aroused. Henceforth Ladejinsky's religious inheritance would require no other expression. Papers presented in this publication serve to block out, broadly, subsequent phases in Ladejinsky's career. He was borrowed in 1949 to assist the Joint (U.S. and China) Commis- sion on Rural Reconstruction in its agrarian reform efforts in China and Formosa. From 1950 through 1954, in addition to his normal duties as agricultural attache in Tokyo, he reviewed the effects of the Japanese land reform, assisted again in Formosa, and, at the urgent request of the ambassador to India, Chester Bowles, examined at first hand tenurial conditions and problems in Kashmir, Punjab, and Madras (in 1952) and the general status of the land reform program in India (1954). His final year in U.S. government service was spent as land reform advisor with the aid mission in Saigon. From 1956 to 1961 he continued his work 3. Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. 4. Lawrence I. Hewes, Jr., Japan-Land and Men (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State College Press, 1955). The official history was Hewes's "Japanese Land Reform Program," Report no. 127, General Head- quarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. Introduction 7 in Vietnam as personal advisor to President Diem. For the next three years he served the Ford Foundation as a kind of roving regional consultant, advising on the foundation's work in Nepal, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In the latter part of 1964 he began his consulting work for the World Bank. After participating in a major World Bank study of India's prospects for economic development and in other missions to Mexico and Iran, Ladejinsky was posted to India early in 1967 as a member of the Bank's resident mission in New Delhi. There he finished out his work with an increasing stoicism. While India was his primary responsibility and concern during this last period, he was also called upon to assist ad hoc with the Bank's work in Iran, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Writings Over the years, Ladejinsky's career was productive of a considerable body of written work. Most of it, of course, was done for the governments and development institutions for which he worked. His Department of Agriculture studies, most of them pre-1945, were all published in official journals (two appeared in Foreign Crops and Markets, the rest in Foreign Agriculture). Other U.S. government papers done in India and Vietnam appear here for the first time. In fact, the 1955 Vietnam papers have been declassified only by request for the present purpose. The Ford Foundation papers similarly have until now reposed in the foundation's archives. The World Bank papers have always been restricted in circulation and appear publicly for the first time. For these reasons Ladejinsky's postwar written work has been available only to the extent that it has appeared in public print or was distributed, on occasion, to a handful of close friends and professional colleagues. The best known, perhaps, are the seven articles published in Foreign Affairs over a thirty-year period and another six which appeared, beginning in 1969, in the Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay). Other articles appeared from time to time in more popular magazines such as The Reporter, Country Gentleman, and the Saturday Evening Post. But other than the Foreign Affairs articles, most of the published work, including many of the Foreign Agriculture articles, are not easily accessible. Ladejinsky's reputation as a development practitioner therefore rests more on the intimate knowledge of the relatively few government and institutional policymakers and officials with and for whom he worked and of a small circle of professional colleagues with whom he shared his experiences than it does on a wide familiarity with his writings. The present publication is intended to remedy this situation. An intensive search for the purposes of this volume turned up some 142 studies, surveys, reports, articles, memoranda, conference statements, and a few substantive letters comprising approximately one million words. Although a number of significant items may not have been garnered in this process-especially internal memoranda and private letters of value-the papers collected and listed in the Chronological Bibliography almost surely incorporate all Ladejinsky's important work and are representative of all the countries, problems, and ideas with which he concerned himself throughout his career. As might be expected, Japan, Vietnam, and especially India-the countries where he spent the most time and did his most important work-account for a substantial portion of his total writings. Tenurial conditions and agrarian reform are recurrent themes in different countries, conditions, and times. But the papers deal in depth with much more: agricultural and development strategy, institutional barriers (credit, extension, administration, and so on), small farmer programs, drought in Maharashtra and refugees in Bengal, the Green Revolution and government procurement procedures and 8 INTRODUCTION marketing, human welfare and Chinese communes, President Diem's views and the seriousness of Nepal's development intentions. Truly, this lode is rich with highly concentrated ore waiting to be mined by policymakers, development practitioners, rural development specialists, scholars and students, and also by all those genuinely interested in the human and operational aspects of economic development. Those who read Ladejinsky here for the first time will find nothing that is academic or theoretical. Every piece Ladejinsky ever wrote is based on specific facts and situations addressed to living and urgent problems involving the burdens and agonies of millions of impoverished peasants. His writings were designed either to stimulate the required central government attention, necessary programs, and policy action, or to suggest to the World Bank and the Ford Foundation, his only nongovernmental employers, how they could most usefully assist one country or another. His published postwar articles were written to mobilize an elite or broader public support for necessary government actions. To repeat, then: this man was no academic, no theorizer; he was a doer. His written work, no less than his work in the field, was operational. The pieces presented here have been selected, first, for their relevance to the agricultural, developmental, and human conditions in Aia today and the enlightenment they offer policy- makers and development practitioners in addressing and improving that condition. A second criterion has been the contribution made to the understanding of agricultural and economic development. Third, an attempt was made to present papers that would be truly representative of the man and his work, the countries, problems, and ideas with which he was concerned, and the values he cherished. A fourth criterion, applicable in the case of papers such as those on Vietnam, has been their uniqueness and historical value. Fifth, previously unpublished papers have been given some slight preference, although not at the cost of quality, relevance, or comprehensiveness. Limitations of space and the fact that Ladejinsky dealt with many topics more than once have made it necessary to curtail many excellent pieces. Sometimes he revisited at a later time a problem previously dealt with; sometimes lie added a new dimension or depth, or under- scored that a problem previously flagged was still there, naggingly awaiting action; sometimes lie revised for a more popular periodical an earlier piece written for an institution or professional journal. Particularly in a number of the India papers over the last decade of his life, Ladejinsky repeatedly reviewed the evolving problems (and programs) of the small submarginal farmer, of land reform, of the Green Revolution, of such institutional constraints as cooperative credit, extension, and administration, and so on. The criterion of accessibility has also been invoked. All but two fragments of the classic "Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union" has reluctantly been excluded because of its length (close to 90 printed pages) -but only because the Political Science Quarterly in which it appeared in 1934 should be available in any good library. In several cases it has been possible to use Ladejinsky's own summary of, or a significant excerpt from, a paper. But no paper with a solid claim to inclusion on the grounds already described has consciously been omitted unless it is reason- ably accessible in published form. The Ladejinsky Thesis I have dealt thus far with Ladejinsky's professional career, his antecedents, his motivations and values, and the subject matter of his written work. It is time to turn to the substance of his thinking-to the Ladejinsky "message" or thesis, to his work method and style, and to the qualities of the man himself. Introduction 9 Ladejinsky never wrote a book. Neither did he contemplate, even toward the end of his career, summing up in book form what he had learned or the message he wished to leave behind. Like the shoemaker who heeded the admonition "Stick to thy last," Ladejinsky was too humble a man to undertake-as have so many of vastly lesser experience, insight, and wisdom-organizing and presenting his views in a framework broader than that of the specific problems to which he habitually addressed himself. Thus, even among his articles, there are no such titles as "Toward a Strategy for Agricultural Development," "The Role of Agrarian Reform in Agricultural and Economic Development," "Agrarian Reform and Political and Social Stability," "The Possibilities and Limitations of Foreign Aid," or "The Role of Asia in a Postwar Democratic World." Yet Ladejinsky had deep insights and strong convictions about these and other large questions too. Although he never chose to isolate and develop them, his views about them nevertheless ernerge, often in fragmentary form, in the course of his treatment of much more specific subjects. Like exploding flashbulbs, they illuminate the larger background of the more immediate and limited scenes on which he had been focusing. In only one or two significant exceptions to this generality did Ladejinsky present his broader views in something more than a paragraph or two. In a private letter to Kenneth Iverson of the Ford Foundation late in 1954 Ladejinsky attempted to formulate, in very broad terms, his understandings of the problem facing those in the West who wished to advance the cause of human welfare in the poor countries. He dealt with the competition with communism in this regard; the kinds of assistance programs that might prove most effective, especially in relation to land tenure; and the qualities most essential and desirable in technical assistance personnel (11-24).5 Another exception is a paper, "Land Reform," prepared for delivery to an MIT Conference on Productivity and Innovation in Under- developed Countries in 1964 (IV-47). Here Ladejinsky uncharacteristically dealt with the land reform problem in general terms rather than in the particular. He examined the scope and significance of land reform, its meaning and content, its politics, its relation to produc- tivity and political stability, its prospects and limitations. These two items should not be missed even by the highly selective reader. It should be useful to set forth here, albeit only briefly, what Ladejinsky was too humble to develop at length himself. Here, then, are what strike me as the chief elements in what might be called "the central Ladejinsky thesis," set in the larger perspective in which his views were framed. 1. In a world in which mankind's best hopes for human welfare under freedom are dependent on the fruition of the democratic dream, to which Communism represents both the major threat and likely alternative, the role of Asia is crucial. ". . . what happens in Asia in coming decades is as decisive for the future shape of the world as anything that happens in Western Europe." "From the point of view of the West and the preservation of its most cherished values, it is of the utmost importance whether, in their current efforts to modernize, the underdeveloped countries will lean towards the West, adapting its technology and political ideas to suit their special needs or, instead, accept the Communist promises and eventually the Communist system. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the existence of the Western, democratic world will depend upon the choice, free or accidental, of the underdeveloped countries between following in the Communist path or proceeding with Western aid" (11-24). 5. References are to part and chapter numbers of this book as listed in the table of contents. The examples cited in this introduction are illustrative rather than exhaustive. 10 INTRODUCTION 2. The welfare of the Asian peoples will play a definitive role in this outcome. "Every Asian, however illiterate, consciously or unconsciously aspires to a measure of this welfare which consists of better living conditions, better health, better social status or greater equality of status, better government, greater participation in local or national affairs, and a host of other values which spell out the ideas of human welfare and of 'the dignity of man'. . . The survival of the underdeveloped countries along Western lines dictates the application of these objectives . . ." (11-24). 3. Agricultural progress is basic and essential to economic development and welfare, whether in Asia or in other agrarian and developing societies (11-24, IV-43), not only because agriculture contributes directly to production but also because it provides a growing market for the domestic manufacturing industries which are also essential to economic growth and employment (CB-100).' Yet developing countries generally failed to recognize this through the 1960s, and recognition of agriculture's central role is still far from general. Ladejinsky was far ahead of his time when he perceived in the early 1950s that the developing countries were making a critical error in overemphasizing industrial development as the high road to economic growth, at the cost of agriculture and overall economic development (11-24; 111-29, 38; IV-46). "More immediately to the point [as an obstacle of agricultural progress] is ... the heavy bias in favor of industrialization in the typical underdeveloped, agrarian country, as against setting its agrarian house in order. This approach, favored by planners and economists, both Western and Asian, has tended to retard the much-needed agricultural effort. This criticism is not leveled against industrialization as such; its usefulness is all too obvious. What is at issue is the overemphasis on industrialization in relation to agriculture . . . In largely agrarian Asia this approach is an economic and political fallacy which, if persisted in, is bound to lead-has already led-to serious stresses and strains affecting the progress of developing countries" (IV-46). 4. Where the land-man ratio permits, redistribution leading to widespread land ownership for the great mass of cultivators is the best way to provide the incentives necessary to the agricultural investment, modernization, increased output, and higher levels of living and welfare that connote agricultural progress. Where the land-man ratio will permit such redistribution only in limited degree, the most practicable and therefore constructive solution to the problem of equity and incentives lies in achieving a truly secure land tenure for tenants and sharecroppers, combined with tolerable ceiling rents (IV-47). The price and terms of repayment for redistributed land must not burden excessively the new owner (11-18, IV-47). Where land redistribution programs enable absentee landlords to resume sizable farms for their own cultivation, "The net result is a new type of tenant . . . the 'evicted tenant'" (11-24). The satisfactory implementation of land redistribution programs requires active participation and execution by local or village land commissions, at least half of whose members should be tenant farmers (II-10, 11). Tenant tenure should be protected by written contracts with renewal safeguards. In the absence of secure tenure, effective rent ceilings are impossible to administer (11-24, V-51 ). Effective rent ceilings reduce the capitalized value of land and make it easier for tenants and sharecroppers to buy land of their own in the marketplace (11-12). 5. Widely distributed land ownership and secure low-rent tenancies do not alone suffice to make or ensure the success of an agrarian reform. Also needed are adequate and secure 6. This and a few following CB references are to papers listed in the Chronological Bibliography but not reproduced in this book. Introduction 11 water supplies and effective institutional arrangements for essential inputs, the credit necessary to obtain them, and the extension services needed to guide small farm operators in their efficient use. "In conditions of rural poverty even redistribution of the land will not suffice unless it is accompanied by the necessary means to work and improve the land" (IV-47). 6. This is not to say that agrarian reform is a panacea that provides an assured solution to all the problems of the countryside. Especially "Where the pressure of population on limited land resources is great, agrarian reform . . . is not a final solution . . . Rather it does away. with the worst features of a system that has outlived its usefulness economically, socially, and politically" (IV-47). And "the issue in India is not one of solving the rural problem but of palliatives capable of wiping out the worst features which condemn the farmers to a below- subsistence level of existence" (11-23). 7. Because of the peasant's desperate need and hunger for land, and because exposure to the winds of change have aroused him ("an overworked and overexploited common man who for centuries was inertly miserable is now alertly miserable"), basic agrarian reform is inevitable and its character essentially revolutionary (11-24). ". . . despite the opposition of the landlords or of governments dominated by them, the transfer of ownership is inevitable; what is in question is the pace-quicker in a country where the government is bent on implementing a reform, slower where a government has neither the strength nor the desire to activate the issue . . . the reform movement is a revolutionary one even though landlords' heads do not roll and noblemen's nests are not set afire" (11-22). Land reform "involves a drastic redistribution of property and income at the expense of the landlords. It becomes a revolutionary measure when it passes property, political power, and social status from one group in the society to another . . . A reform worthy of its name is supposed to strengthen the principle of private property where it was weakest, at the base of the social pyramid . . . As the landlord loses much of his affluence, he loses much of his influence" (IV-47). 8. The key to who makes agrarian reform, and to what determines whether an attempted reform will be successful, is political. "Technical expertise in preparing and administering the necessary legislation is indispensable, but experts do not make reforms. Politicians, and only politicians, make good or poor reforms or do not make them at all. They control the political climate, which determines the will or lack of will to proceed with the task; the specific measures with which the reform is or is not endowed; the care or lack of care with which the enabling legislation is formulated; the preparation or lack of preparation of the pertinent and administrative services; the presence or absence of technical services with their bearing upon the success or failure of the reform; and, most important, the drive or lack of drive behind the enforcement of the provisions of the law" (IV-47; see also V-51). 9. Government then-its desire and its will-is the key to agrarian reform. "The built-in landlord opposition, abetted by public servants, can be dealt with successfully if the political leadership is bent on carrying out its goals. This is especially important because the peasantry has not developed a popular political movement of its own capable of effectively representing and advocating its own cause" (IV-47). But what if governments fail to act, or act only in a halfhearted way, so as to vitiate the announced purposes of an "intended" reform? "Government authority, after all, usually is controlled by the very forces likely to be adversely affected by progressive economic and social development" (CB-47). In such a case, "There is ample proof that sooner or later the dispossessed will take the law into their own hands, to the utter destruction of the governments and classes who failed to grant them peacefully what they [will} otherwise try to acquire through violence . . ." Experience has thus demonstrated that "the foundations of the social structure stand or fall in the countryside and 12 INTRODUCTION that the peasant and his interests and aspirations must be placed 'in the center of the piece.'" There is ample lesson and warning in postwar history "of the shape of things to come when the economic and social aspirations of the peasant are sacrificed for the sake of an outdated status quo" (111-32). ". . somebody else will take over this long-overdue task, and much more will be at stake than a new rearrangement of income distribution and status in the countryside" (IV-47). 10. Complementary to this "or else" thesis is the conclusion that, where circumstances fairly cry out for agrarian reform, effective governmental action to achieve it is essential to economic, social, and political stability in the countryside and hence to the survival of democracy itself (III32, IV-43, CB-100). ". . . farm reform can become a powerful political instrument. The native governments friendly to us vould be more likely to win popular support, and popular support in Asia is 'peasant support or nothing.' An owner cultivator or a reasonably satisfied tenant would acquire a stake in society. He would guard that society against extremism. Private property would be strengthened where it has been weakest, at the huge base of the social pyramid . . . any effort to ease the peasant's burden ... lays the foundation for a middle-of-the-road, stable rural society . . . 'Land and liberty' has ever been the ideal of all peasants" (11-13). The Ladejinsky thesis speaks for itself and calls for little comment here. Attention may, however, be called to one element in his thesis about which Ladejinsky himself, late in his career, became shaky. And some questions need to be asked about another because events may seem to have negated it. Until close to the end of his life, with his observation of Communist policies in the Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indian countrysides confirming his earlier observations and experience in the Soviet Union and China, Ladejinsky insisted that if basic agrarian reforms were not carried out from the top down, voluntarily, by supposedly democratic governments while they had the opportunity to do so, change would inevitably come about by violent action, from the bottom up, inspired by Communist propaganda. But he began to experience serious doubts about this as he puzzled over the passivity of the peasantry in Maharashtra during the devastating drought of 1972-73. Raising the question "Will peasants rebel?" Ladejinsky found it "a source of wonderment that the afflicted 'take it' without overt protests, let alone without resorting to violence . .. one is mystified . . . This observer couldn't help but cogitate about the causes explaining it . . ." (V-58). A few months later, addressing a World Bank seminar on land reform, this doubt had become a conclusion. "If we are to wait until the peasantry of India-or, for that matter, a number of other Asian countries- decide to take the law into their own hands and fight for an out and out radical agrarian revolution, I think we would have to wait a long, long time." Given the obvious lack of the essential will on the part of the Indian government, Ladejinsky for once was at a loss. "I really don't know what one does at this point." And then, with wry humor, "I suppose the only person who probably knows what the eventual solution may be is the Indian astrologer; I leave it to him at this point to provide the final answer" (CB-1 27). What invites question is the complex of judgments at the heart of the Ladejinsky thesis that "the foundations of the social structure stand or fall in the countryside," that the peasant must be placed "in the center of the piece," and that the economic, social, and political stability essential to the future of democracy in Asia rest on finding solutions to the socially cancerous problems of the countryside. Are not these judgments contrary to the Asian experience of recent years? Has it not been the wretched conditions and insistent demands of a rapidly growing and highly politicized new urban proletariat which has dominated political Introduction 13 decisionmaking or frightened weak governments into indecision and impotence? Has it not been the frustrated dissatisfaction of this urban proletariat, rather than the "alert misery" of the peasantry, which has eroded the political base of weak parliamentary governments and opened the political gates to military and other authoritarian governments? So it would seem. But do these unhappy historical developments of recent years really negate the core of the Ladejinsky thesis, or do they serve rather to confirm it? What was it that sent the teeming millions of impoverished and landless cultivators streaming into the cities where they could not find employment, housing, nor schooling and health care for their children nor escape from misery? Was it not the failure to address the fundamental problems of agrarian reform in the countryside, and the misguided overemphasis on industrialization at the expense of agriculture, which increasingly exacerbated inequalities of income, unbalanced development, and stunted economic growth? Has the central problem not been and does it not remain the one Ladejinsky posed? It was with a piercingly prescient simplicity that he wrote in 1954: "Four-fifths of the people who populate the under- developed areas are peasants. Agriculture, not industry, is the pivot of their lives in all its principal manifestations. Industry has made but a small dent in the character of Asia, notwith- standing the industrialization of Japan, the oil gushers of the Middle East, the tin mines of Malay and Siam, and the jute and cotton mills of India. The factory may bring material advancement to the Asians some day, but that day is in the future. The heart of the problem of Asia today lies in the countryside. It is on the farm where solutions must be sought and found" (11-24). Foreign Assistance Ladejinsky firmly believed that economic development was basically a job which, for the most part, the poor countries had to do for themselves, making fundamental policy choices which only they could make. His views on foreign aid were therefore not incorporated into the core of his thinking just presented. The vital importance he attributed to the role of Western aid was made evident from the very outset, however, and was indeed fundamental to his thought. For this reason, and as a sensitive, wise, and highly experienced practitioner of development assistance over the years, he came to a number of highly insightful and useful ideas about it, which will be examined here. Ladejinsky's view of the critical choice confront- ing the poor countries between the Western and Communist systems provides a useful point of departure for this examination. The following quotations from an article written in 1950 develop this view. "Now the forces that keep the peasant within well-defined bounds are breaking down under rising agrarian discontent. The peasantry is at last in motion. The Communists have exploited this fact and placed it in the center of Asiatic politics . . . Lenin . . . visualized the final crucial battle as a conflict between a Communist East and a capitalistic West ... To win Chinese and Indian support, Stalin developed a program for those countries consisting of three stages: a struggle against foreign imperialism, an agrarian revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party, and finally a proletarian dictatorship. The key step was to be the wooing of the peasants . . . The only way to thwart Communist designs on Asia is to preclude such revolutionary outbursts through timely reforms, peacefully, before the peasants take the law into their own hands and set the countryside ablaze" (11-13). On the nature and strategy of assistance, he had this to say about the Western role: "Whatever we may contribute to Asia's advancement and stability-be it in the form of dollars, of technical guidance, of organizational advice, or of military assistance-our policy 14 INTRODUCTION and all our diplomatic competence and tact should be actively and sympathetically guided by the knowledge that the foundations of the social structure stand or fall in the countryside ... We must make an effort to persuade the more conservative Asian groups that rural reform is essential to their own preservation as well as in the interest of the peasantry . . . From ambassadors and ministers to foreign service clerks, we must begin to feel and act in terms of the common man, and in Asia he is the peasant. We must make a special effort to seek out and encourage in every way possible the native liberal groups who might otherwise be lost to our common cause" (11-13). Ladejinsky went to China and Taiwan in 1949 to assist the joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction in a pre-Point IV foreign assistance program which impressed him greatly and which he thought might well serve as a model for future assistance efforts. One unusual aspect he admired was that the joint commission was itself a cooperative effort, with three Chinese and two American members. The chairman was Chinese wvhile both American members were men who had lived and worked professionally in China for many years and who shared fully the aspirations of the farmers they sought to serve. The commission adopted "a bold rural program" with ten constituent elements that gave first priority to land reform. This was no accident. "It was ... clear to the commission that the chief beneficiaries of the technical projects would be the landlords and not the majority of the farmers-the tenants-unless tenancy conditions were improved." And Ladejinsky described approvingly the basic principles and criteria the commission selected as a basis for its activities. It ruled out costly projects with modern equipment unsuited to small-scale Chinese agriculture. It chose not to set up new enterprises that would compete with existing ones, but chose rather to assist in enlarging and improving the latter. It shunned projects for which the farmers themselves had not expressed a strong preference. It concentrated on projects that would help the people to help themselves and that would benefit the great majority of farmers rather than just a few. To develop indigenous leadership it made special efforts to draw the educated youth of the country into the work of rural reconstruction. And, most important of all, it insisted as a condition of its aid that "physical reconstruction must be accompanied with social justice." In assessing the work of the commission, Ladejinsky sagely observed that "the experience of the commission shows that, unless it can be usefully absorbed, money alone cannot solve problems. And," he generalized, "this is a point worth remembering in all rural aid efforts in underdeveloped countries" (11-14). Two letters to Ford Foundation officials in 1953 and 1955 are addressed to the question of how the foundation could most usefully be of assistance in Asian countries, but Ladejinsky's advice also has a more general application. The foundation's Report on the Conference on Land Tenure (in which he had himself participated by invitation some months earlier) was, he said, not realistically geared to the actual situation and problems of the countries the foundation sought to aid. Its stated principles of land reform policy, he pointed out, "constitute something akin to a perfectionist scheme, upon the fulfillment of which no land reform waited in the past or will wait in the future." Moreover, useful assistance in land reform does not lie in advising governments "how to formulate policies, administer, execute, and evaluate them." We know too little for this, he insisted, while "Every country in Asia has an articulate group with knowledge of the country's agrarian problems and ways of solving them. The difficulty is that often they choose to ignore them." It follows that "To be of real aid we could do no better than try to persuade this group that it is perhaps later than they think. This is where under propitious circumstances we could, with subtlety and experience, render useful service." A low profile, caution, and humility are other requisites (11-22). Introduction 15 The second letter, already cited in an earlier connection, is much broader in scope. Because backwardness in underdeveloped countries is not only economic but general, assistance programs "must not be limited to what is commonly known as technical or economic assistance." Moreover, with a sober prescience, he foresaw and stressed that "it is not at all certain that achievements in technical [or economic] assistance will automatically or necessarily insure a greater sharing of economic welfare . .. of political power, free public schools, the emergence of representative governments, and other developments which denote progress in democracy" (11-24). Since it is the political climate for reform which is crucial, the strategy of assistance should aim at reaching those "groups whose support could make the difference between determined action . . . or none at all." In India Ladejinsky saw the universities as the key medium for such an approach. But he cautioned that outsiders seeking to advance the essential cause of land reform must be sensitive to the fact that it is a highly controversial issue. Landlords are bound to resist it, and "Foreign 'interference' may add fuel to the already burning issue by antagonizing not only the conservatives but also the pro-reform supersensitive nationalists" who are only too ready to fight any infringement on their national sovereignty (11-24). Two decades later Ladejinsky cautioned the World Bank to the same effect. Since agrarian reform was essentially a political decision, no government, large or small, could be prodded into such a decision if it were not itself politically ripe for it (CB-1 27, 1411). These views about foreign aid are, not unnaturally, reflected in the qualities Ladejinsky sought in technical assistance personnel. "In the light of the goals our aid should pursue, he (the field-workerl must have much more than technical competence . .. [He] must be able to understand the position the people of a given country are in, to grasp something of their attitudes, their feelings, their state of mind, their view of events and of the world ... He must see what it is . . . that these people bring with them onto the world stage at the present time." In a former colonial dependency he must appreciate that "the economic legacy is often poverty . . . The psychological legacy is fear, suspicion, and hostility" stemming from "all that resulted in the imposition of enforced inferiority. The political legacy is authoritarianism, even when it is embellished with modern democratic forms ... to a large degree the success or failure of his [the field-worker's] labor will depend upon the extent to which he understands and accepts these fundamentals" (11-24). Given these qualities as well as tact, a genuine humility, a gift for personal relations, and a sharing of purposes, said Ladejinsky, the field- worker will gain the acceptance which is so essential if his ideas are to reach their mark. "Advice from the outside has its place and will be accepted if based on knowledge and profferred in the spirit which induces Asians and Westerners to work together for a common goal" (11-24, 111-28). (Not a bad-if unintended-description of Ladejinsky himself! These views were reflected, not long after, in his assessment of the U.S. aid program in Vietnam (111-31). Some twenty years later development institutions and the development profession are coming to a belated recognition of some of Ladejinsky's homely truths. Recognition that "the heart of the problem lies in the countryside" became central to the World Bank's development assistance policy in the 1970s, and much else that he had to say has become part of the conventional wisdom, if not yet the conventional practice. The Western world has learned to its sorrow that economic growth does not necessarily ensure human welfare, nor an increasing measure of social justice, nor even the continued adherence to, let alone the strengthening of, democratic institutions. Not until the 1970s did the appreciation develop that "overemphasis on industrialization in relation to agriculture ... is an economic and 16 INTRODUCTION political fallacy which, if persisted in, is bound to lead . . . to serious stresses and strains affecting the progress of the developing countries." This early insight alone should suffice to make Ladejinsky stand out like a giant in the field of economic development. Work Method and Style What imprints on Ladejinsky's writings their unmistakable stamp of reality and authenticity is the fact that they either reported on his personal field observations or derived directly from them. This is not to say that he failed to devour the relevant literature, to pore over the statistics, or to garner the wisdom and experience of other scholars, observers, and field- workers, domestic or foreign, living or dead. All these things he also did, with a prodigious energy and a burning intellectual curiosity, steeping himself at the same time in the culture of the place so that he could see from the inside as well as from the objective perspective he never lost. But he never made these things his own, wlether by adoption or rejection, until he had tested them by his own direct observations. As Ashok Mitra observed (see below), "Ladejinsky did not just write reports, he lived through them." It is the inescapable realization that Ladejinsky had thought and felt deeply about what lie had himself seen and heard, that he had "lived" his reports, that gives his papers the great immediacy, cogency, and force which characterize them. Just as agrarian reform was central to Ladejinsky's concerns, so direct field observation was central to his work method and style. Typically lie would set out, acconipanied only by an interpreter and without a preset plan, and interview everyone lie encountered by chance or sought out, who might be involved in one way or another in the problem at hand: tenant farmers, sharecroppers, agricultural laborers, landlords and sublandlords, district and local officials, representatives of cooperative banks and marketing agencies-in short, everyone who could possibly provide an insight into the prevailing condition, their interests in it, and their reactions to it. This took him not only into the fields, marketplaces, and offices but also into the hutments where he could observe how the people lived, what food was in the larder, and how the wives and children fared. If he stopped by the roadside to talk to a farmer or laborer, inevitably others drifted over to observe and listen and then to join in the conversation. For it was always plain to them that this foreign stranger was no alien being, questioning them from a plane other than their own. They sensed at once that he spoke with them as one man to another, that he shared with them the human condition, as well as their interests and concerns; they in turn were glad of the opportunity to share their interests and concerns with him. Over the years Ladejinsky must have thus visited and spoken intimately with many hundreds of peasants in every country in which he worked. It is doubtful whether any other man- agricultural economist, development practitioner, or, indeed, government official-had made so close and direct an acquaintance with the peasant cultivators of Asia or had come to know so well the peasant condition. It was quite natural, therefore, that Ladejinsky's work was never theoretical but invariably rooted in fact and specific situations and problems. His work was always set in a perspective that embraced both the immediate as well as the historical and broader background. It sought out causes, objectives, obstacles, and accomplishments and assessed all of these in one large, professionally disciplined and yet very human view. One other aspect of Ladejinsky's working method or style is particularly noteworthy. In country after country in which lie worked lie managed, after conducting his surveys and reaching his conclusions, to gain an audience and the opportunity personally to present his Introduction 17 findings and conclusions to the head of government. That this was not customary but rather highly unique any experienced development practitioner or advisor knows, ruefully, only too well; neither, of course, was it accidental. It happened for the most part by Ladejinsky's design. Although his reputation often preceded him and helped, just how he managed to do this is a political, diplomatic, and operational art that can neither be dissected nor emulated by any formula. Ladejinsky would have been less than human if he had not been somewhat flattered and gratified by such opportunities. He could scarcely have avoided wonderment, as he approached such audiences, that he, so recently a poor immigrant, was about to converse with the high and mighty. But such access was essential to his purposes. He knew very well that any significant progress toward agrarian reform in any country required a political decision at the highest level of authority. Ministers of agriculture or planning or finance might be persuaded and might even relay the message to the head of government, but they were scarcely likely to convey it as cogently or persuasively as Ladejinsky himself, if indeed they could be relied upon to carry the message at all. This is the why if not the how of Ladejinsky's audiences, frequently repeated, with General MacArthur in Japan, Premier Chen Cheng in Taiwan, President Diem in Vietnam, Prime Minister Koirala and King Mahendra in Nepal, Prime Minister Hoveida in Iran, President Marcos in the Philippines, and President McNamara at the World Bank. In his single audience with Madame Gandhi, he once confided, he failed to 'reach" her, and despite his long residence in India he did not try again. And he knew better than to try in the case of one other national leader. Describing a visit to Indonesia earl)' in 1961, where he had met at some length with Minister Sadjarwo, he wrote: "Whether.it is really worthwhile investing time-assuming that I had some to spare-is another matter. My skepticism stems from the knowledge that, in such a highly personalized government . . . the number one, Mr. Sukarno, must be influenced if real progress is to be made. Regretfully, I am not sure that I could reach him, and, even if reached, I am not sure that I could find the key to a man whose attitude toward affairs of state is a great puzzle and wonderment to me and countless others" (111-37 ). That he was a superb reporter as well as analyst of the agrarian scene is evident in many of the papers presented, whether in Japan (CB-27), Szechwan (11-12), Vietnam (111-26), Punjab (V-50), Bihar (V-51), Eastern United Provinces (V-54), Maharashtra (V-58), or elsewhere. Nor was this superb reporting limited to the agrarian condition, as demonstrated by his description of the conditions in West Bengal as refugees fled from the horrors in Bangladesh (V-56), by his interview with President Diem (111-27), by his impressions of India after the China war (IV-41), or by his assessment of Nepal's development intentions (CB-86). At least two observations should be made about Ladejinsky's writing style. The first and more obvious is that, especially in his published work, which he labored to polish, he had a beautiful command of the English language, a command all the more impressive because his mother tongues were Yiddish and Russian, and, like Joseph Conrad, he learned English painfully only after he had reached maturity. This command was enriched by his gift for the pithy phrase, the apt quotation, and the lively anecdote.' The second is that Ladejinsky always treated his subject in a full, thoroughly rounded out-almost prolix-fashion. I take this to 7. For example, in his "Traditional Agriculture and the Ejido" (CB-100) he tells of the farmer who, when asked about the extension service, replied, "Ah, you mean the fellow who drives by but never stops here." 18 INTRODUCTION be a reflection of both his seriousness and his pride. If a subject was important enough to engage Ladejinsky's attention, he would treat it thoroughly, with the seriousness it deserved and with no concession to the possibility that the reader might take it somewhat less seriously than he. He can sometimes almost be heard saying, "If this matter was serious enough to warrant my attention and examination, and you wish to learn what I have learned and come to think about it, you will have to give it your equally serious attention." In his case, this point of view is entirely justified. The Man Ladejinsky was one of those rare individuals of whom it can literally be said that the man was his work and the work, the man. A good deal of the essential Ladejinsky must already have emerged from what has been said in the preceding pages. Those who read all his papers will be impressed with many more aspects or qualities of the man than have already been stated or implied: the judicious evenhandedness shown in his assessment of colonial policies in the Netherlands Indies and in British Malaya (I-6, 7); the fair treatment for landlords called for in Taiwan (11-10); his insightful political acumen (everywhere, but see especially 111-28, 31, 35; CB-86); his unerring eye for the essential; his great persuasiveness (IV-40, CB-101); his dogged persistence in getting his work done, despite the official discourage- ment or obstacles he sometimes encountered (11-21, CB-123, 141); and the humility with which he assessed his own role and achievements (11-16, 24; CB-49). These are only some of his personal qualities. Left untouched are others which would more appropriately be treated in a personal memoir-his capacity for friendship, his passion for good craftsmanship, his sense of humor, the stoic fortitude with which he endured ill health and disappointment, and his love of beauty in music, literature, and art. But at his innermost core and in the end perhaps most important were zeal, and faith, and love. It was of these that his long-time friend and colleague in the quest for genuine agrarian reform in India, Ashok Mitra, wrote in a touching tribute:' Wolf Ladejinsky was much more than a desiccated agrarian expert. Such experts are legion; without them, foundations set up by multibillionaires would face a problem of non- utilization of resources. They come, write their report, go, and soon forget the country for which they had written it, their mental horizon is always colored a cynical grey. Ladejinsky did not just write reports, he lived through them. He did not need, in his ripe old age, the trifle of the World Bank salary to keep coming to this country, base himself in an impersonalized hotel room in New Delhi, and restlessly wander across the Indian country- side to comprehend the essence of agrarian truth. It was bizarre, yet emotionally a moving experience, to see this near-octogenarian, who had lost the sight of practically both his eyes, who was in such a precarious state of health that he could hardly assimilate any food, still determined to catch the plane, land on the airstrip in a distant town, and get into the jeep or station wagon, or take the ferry across the river, so as to reach some remote village where the bataidar would be able to tell him a little more about the mystique of the local land system, or of the local wage rates. This was no run-of-the-mill technical expert, this was a zealot. And the zeal came from a deep love for people, whatever their civilization or the pigmentation of their skin. 8. Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), July 19, 1975. Introduction 19 Yet Wolf Ladejinsky was no ideologue. He would not have minded being described as an old-world liberal, who takes it as his mission to analyze and state the truth, whatever its hue. Thus he could be of considerable service to General MacArthur in Japan in 1946; the Shah of Iran too called for him, and the State Department, in the late 1950s-before it lost its head completely over Vietnam-also thought that he could render some good to the authorities in Saigon with his advice and counsel. Ladejinsky did not stint on his advice, but he did not stint on telling the truth either. Thus, in the Indian milieu, he could say things-and be heard with respect-which the establishment would not be prepared to hear from others, things about Bihat's medieval feudalism, about the Green Revolution stifled three-quarters the way in Punjab and Haryana, about the agony of Bengal's deprived sharecroppers and landless labor, about the real nature of famine relief in Maharashtra. Land reform, he could say in his quaint American-heavily-tinged-with-Russian accent, was nine-tenths political will, and where there is a will there is a way, and not just legislation. He was no ideologue-one cannot in any case afford to be one once one accepts World Bank sponsorship-but he was not afraid of ideas either. And he knew how to bestow affection. Never very demonstrative, he would still make his little gestures, and there could be no mistaking the depth of his goodwill. An admirer of this journal, he would, every now and then, drop one an appreciative note about some altogether insignificant piece one might have written. It calls for a special genre of faith in humanity to assert that, whatever the circumstances, howsoever unmitigatedly unfavor- able the objective conditions, in the short run, a people-any people-are capable of lifting themselves through a revolutionary upsurge. Wolf Ladejinsky held such faith, and he tried hard to convert others to it. As one mourns for him, one does not just mourn for a great American, one also mourns for a great romantic, who had wizened with the years, but who refused to forsake either hope or love. The Ladejinsky Contribution What was the Ladejinsky contribution? What did his forty years of dedicated work accomplish? This is not the place or time for such an assessment. His contribution will have to be evaluated eventually by his impact on agrarian reforms accomplished, stirred up, shunned neglected, or frustrated; on economic planners and development workers in the developing countries and the institutions with which they are associated; on the programs of development institutions like the World Bank and the Ford Foundation; on the thinking of academics and research workers in the field and on their institutions; and on the new generation of university graduates in both Western and developing countries who were inspired by his thinking, whether it reached them directly or indirectly. However his contribution might be assessed at this time, there can be no doubt that his impact is still growing. "The ideas of economists and philosophers," Keynes said, "are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else . . . I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas." It will not, however, be inappropriate to record here a few notes and suggestions concerning his contribution. Partial answers have already been placed on the record by persons in the best possible position to evaluate his role in particular situations. Concerning Ladejinsky's contribution in Japan, General MacArthur wrote (to the U.S. secretary of agriculture on January 15, 1947): "Mr. Ladejinsky performed outstanding service in connection with the initiation of a comprehensive Land Reform Program by the Japanese Government, thereby 20 INTRODUCTION aiding in the attainment of important objectives of the Occupation. I wish to express my appreciation to you and the Department for having made his services available." And in a letter to Ladejinsky dated April 26, 1952, inscribed on an impressive silver plaque, Minister of Agriculture Kozen Hirokawa on behalf of the Japanese government wrote in part: "Our country owes you [a] heavy debt for your share in the successful accomplishment of the Land Reform Program. The world knows that this is the most significant reform which Japan accomplished under the Occupation, and I know that the reform was carried out with the closest cooperation and in the most friendly atmosphere between yourself and the personnel of our Ministry and I am convinced that the effect of the Land Reform will remain forever and so will your name in Japanese agriculture." With respect to his contribution to agrarian reform in Taiwan, there is the testimony of Premier Chen Cheng, who cabled Ladejinsky in Tokyo on March 6, 1951: "I was glad to learn . . . of your willingness to come to Taiwan again. We are grateful for your invaluable assistance rendered to our country when you were last here [in 1949]. Now we are planning to carry our a limitation of land holdings program in which your advice is greatly needed. We have requested General MacArthur to approve lending your services to our Government and he has been good enough to give his approval. Please notify us of the date of your departure. You will be coining as my honored guest." Acknowledging the report "Obser- vations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan" (i-15 ) which resulted, the premier wrote, on July 19, 1951, "We are grateful for your deep concern with Free China and the enthusiasm in presenting and analyzing the actual rural conditions in Taiwan. Please be advised that your valuable suggestions have been referred to [the] Economic-Financial Committee of [the] Executive Yuan for consideration to put them into effect." This relationship and appreciation continued. More than a year and a half later, on February 28, 1953, the premier wrote Ladejinsky again, inviting his views on the most recent land reform steps taken by his government. "It has been some time since I last heard from you. It is perhaps not necessary for me to say that you have always been in my thoughts . . . I am happy to report that at the beginning of this year we have put into execution the third and final step of land reform ... As you have given invaluable assistance in the past . . . I enclose herewith a copy of the English translation of the Land to the Tiller Act . . . I shall be very grateful if you will be good enough to give me your comments . . ." These testimonials by the highest authorities associated with the land reforms in Japan and Taiwan take on body and flesh when they are read in the light of Ladejinsky's own backward looks and assessments of the achievements of those reforms. For Japan the relevant papers are 11-9, 111-33, and CB-1 2, 49; for Taiwan, 11-14 and CB-38. We have no com- parable testimonial from President Diem of Vietnam; but the Vietnam papers presented here are perhaps testimony enough, especially the two backward looking and evaluative papers, 111-38 and CB-75. Ladejinsky's contributions to agrarian reform in India, where he strove mightily and long, will be more difficult to assess, even by those of his professional Indian colleagues who subscribed to the same values and goals and who are in the best position to attempt it. The papers included in this publication provide abundant evidence of Ladejinsky's efforts and the lines along which they were directed. As far back as the early 1 950s he established close and cordial working relations with the Planning Commission in India. The commission subse- quently formulated central guidelines for agrarian reform by the state governments (which have sole authority under the Indian constitution to legislate in this field) along lines which coincided with Ladejinsky's views. For this early period there is also the testimony of the Introduction 21 then U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles, at whose urgent request Ladejinsky was borrowed from his post in Tokyo in the latter part of 1952 to study and advise on projected plans for land reform in India. (This visit resulted, among other things, in land reform observations in the Punjab, Madras, and Kashmir, recorded as 11-18, 19, 20.) Upon Ladejinsky's return to Tokyo, Ambassador Bowles wrote him on February 5, 1953: "It was wonderful to have you here. I am convinced that your work and your contacts have clarified Indian thinking on the whole problem of land tenure and speeded up the process of doing something about it." To Ambassador Robert Murphy in Tokyo, who had reluctantly loaned Ladejinsky for this purpose, Bowles wrote: "I can't tell you how much it meant to us to have Wolf Ladejinsky here over the last several months . . . There was no clear, current picture of the situation when Wolf got here and no really good evaluation of the actions that had been taken over the last several years by the central and state governments. Wolf's clear insight and unfailing energy gave us a good picture in a brief time of what had been done and, still more important, what needs to be done. I think he communicated his own sense of urgency about this to many of the state officials but particularly to the people concerned with the Five Year Plan and other officials here in the central government." But over the years following, most state governments in India enacted land reform legislation that was either feeble or pockmarked with such loopholes as too high ceilings on acreage retention and resumption-and this only after landlords had been afforded ample opportunity nominally to "divide" their land among relatives, so as to gain additional escape from the application of "reform" legislation. The same state governments also failed to implement vigorously the weak legislation they did enact. Despite Ladejinsky's valiant efforts in later years to stimulate significant action on security of tenure and rent ceilings, where substantial gains were and remain possible, the government revived instead the chimera of new landholding ceilings and redistribution legislation, where only very limited gains were possible and still fewer actually made. (See especially on this aspect papers V-59 and CB-122.) Ladejinsky's impact was felt, however, in the sense of concern and even guilt he introduced into the national conscience through his own writings and those of India's intellectual and academic elite to whom he provided inspiration and example. The basic questions he raised became part of a continuous public debate in academic, research, and government circles and in the press. National commissions were appointed, conferences organized, new programs undertaken, and new priorities established in large part because of the logic and moral force of Ladejinsky's insistence that the problems of India's agrarian poor were central and had to be addressed. The battery of rural "social justice" programs initiated in the early 1970s--such as those for small and marginal farmers and landless laborers and crash employment pro- grams-owe their genesis to the ferment Ladejinsky did so much to create. Another important outcome of his residence in India on behalf of the World Bank was undoubtedly his impact on the Bank itself. The World Bank Sector Policy Paper, "Land Reform," May 1975, notes that: "The position of the World Bank in regard to land reform has changed over the past decade . .. In the early years of the Bank's operations the focus was on providing adequate infrastructure for increasing agricultural production. In the early 1960s the approach to agricultural development was widened to include the provision of rural credit and on-farm inputs. Problems of tenure were seen to have an indirect bearing on production . . . By the end of the 1960s, however, concern was growing about distribution of income in the rural areas and the relationship between land distribution and income distribution." An internal Bank paper affirmed that "It is clear that agricultural development 22 INTRODUCTION cannot do all it might to improve rural life if the distribution of land ownership is highly skewed." Since that time the Bank's concern has been reflected in both its technical assistance and lending policies. In a large organization such as the World Bank many people are involved in the accommodation of policy to experience, changing conditions, and new insights into needs, goals, and optimum strategies. But there can be no doubt that Ladejinsky's work and views were a major influence in the evolution of these constructive changes in World Bank policy. Although the Bank recognizes, as did Ladejinsky, that its "potential for using the Bank's influence to press or even force the issue of structural reform on member countries is severely circumscribed," it does propose to "give overt priority in lending to those countries and projects which meet land reform criteria" and states that it will "not lend for projects if tenurial arrangements are so bad that they frustrate the achievement of the Bank's objectives." How much impact this new policy will have remains to be seen. Ladejinsky's contribution to it may prove to have been one of his crowning achievements. Even these very preliminary notes suggest that Ladejinsky accomplished more than enough during his lifetime to have justified a real sense of pride in his achievements. But he was far more concerned with what he had failed to do, or get done, than with what he had helped to accomplish. And indeed one comes away from Ladejinsky's papers with the pronounced sense that the business of agrarian reform is largely unfinished and that the major part of the job to which he devoted his life remains to be done. Only in retrospect, however, do these opportunities lost or neglected seem distressing; for the future the opportunity is great. The publication of these papers, it is hoped, will bring about a greater awareness, in many countries where it is needed, that this essential, unfinished business still awaits constructive social action. To the developing countries, newly insistent on the creation of "a new inter- national economic order," these papers issue a sober reminder that a necessary component of the social justice they seek can be achieved only through internal agrarian reforms, and that the sovereign power to initiate and carry through such reforms rests solely with themselves. This reminder is at the same time, therefore, also a challenge. Louis J. WALINSKY I. THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 URING THESE ESSENTIALLY preparatory Washington years, Ladejinsky published some twenty-six articles-all but four in official journals of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.* Two were concerned with the food situation in Asia. The remainder were country studies: seven of Japan; five of the Soviet Union; two each of India, British Malaya, and Manchuria; and one each of Korea, Chosen (Formosa), Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Thailand, the Netherlands Indies (Indonesia), Australia, and the South Pacific islands. With the exception of the last two, all were to provide a useful preparation and much illumination for subsequent phases of Ladejinsky's work career. Of the five Soviet Union pieces, three are outstanding. From the first of these, "Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union" (which because of its eighty-eight printed pages in length appeared in two parts in the March and June 1934 issues of the Political Science Quarterly), only two brief excerpts are presented here. The first of these, from the opening pages of the article, stresses the political role of the peasantry-a view which was greatly to influence Ladejinsky's subsequent thinking and work. The second deals with the Soviet leaders' perception of the organic interdependence between agri- culture and industry in the country's economic development-another basic idea which was profoundly to influence Ladejinsky's thinking. The two remaining significant Soviet pieces- "Soviet State Farms," which because of its length was again published in two consecutive issues of the Political Science Quarterly (March and June 1938), and "Soviet State Grain Farms," which appeared in the Journal of Farm Economics in October 1938-substantially overlap one another in their subject matter. Only the concluding section from the shorter and later of the two is presented here. Of the seven Japanese articles written during the Washington years, those dealing with the cotton textile and silk industries, food self-sufficiency, and agriculture in general are of no special interest, although they undoubtedly provided useful background for Ladejinsky's later work. And although the three remaining papers are all important, only one of them appears here. Ladejinsky's 1937 paper, "Farm Tenancy and Japanese Agriculture," which did so much to establish his reputation as an expert and proponent of land reform in Japan, was subsequently made redundant by his more thorough and updated "Farm Tenancy in Japan," which he wrote in 1946 while assisting in the actual planning of the reform. The See the Chronological Bibliography. 23 24 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 latter paper appears in Part II of this book. Of the two remaining papers, both significant- "Agrarian Unrest in Japan," which appeared in Foreig, Affairs in January 1939, and "Japan's Agricultural Crisis," which appeared in the Journal of Farm Economics in August 1939-the first is a more popular, the second a more professional, treatment of essentially the same material. I have selected the latter for presentation here. "Agricultural Problems of India," a fairly substantial yet long-forgotten 1939 article, has also been selected for partial presentation. A quite comprehensive survey of India's basic rainfall, backward production techniques, population pressure, fragmentation of holdings, land tenure, indebtedness, and other agricultural problems (as these appeared almost forty years ago), it obviously provided Ladejinsky with insights which germinated over the years and enabled him to approach his fieldwork in India in the early 1950s with a solid foundation and broad perspective. It also impressed him with the serious implications of the population problem for both agricultural and overall economic development long before this became a widely recognized concern. "Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems" (February 1940) and "Manchurian Agriculture Under Japanese Control" (August 1941) describe an insensitive colonial authority at work. The latter paper is especially interesting in its analysis of the attempt-and failure-of the Japanese authorities to force agricultural production and crop delivery by Manchu farmers to official agencies at uneconomically low prices-a lesson that was not lost on Ladejinsky when he observed the government of India's attempts at centralized wheat procurement more than thirty years later. "Agricultural Policies of British Malaya" (March 1941) and "Agri- culture of the Netherlands Indies" (September 1940) show, in contrast, relatively enlight- ened and benevolent colonial administrations at work-a not unuseful reminder these days that all pre-independence prewar colonialism was not unmitigatedly baleful in its intentions and effects. I have included the short Malaya piece in full, a substantial part of the Korea paper, and Ladejinsky's own summary and conclusions from the Indonesia piece. The Man- churia article unfortunately did not lend itself to curtailment and has been omitted in its entirety. The nature of these selected pieces provides the subtitle to Part I's "The Washington Years"-namely, "Early Studies of Agriculture Under Dictatorship and Semifeudal and Colo- nial Administration." 1. Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union This, the first published of Ladejinsky's written works, was a fruit of his graduate studies at Columbia University and was probably to have been his dissertation. Concerning this and his later "Soviet State Farms" published in the same journal, he later wrote "They were the first studies of this kind in English, still used by students concerned with the origins of the Soviet economy." Ladejinsky's experience in the early days of the Soviet revolution and these studies made an indelible impression on him. The two brief excerpts presented here, for which I have provided the subtitles, help to explain why. They are reprinted with permission from Political Science Quarterly; the article appeared in two parts in the March and June issues of 1934. Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union 25 On the Political Role of the Peasantry ingly agrarian Russia was not less significant than that of the proletariat. If we may consider As EARLY AS 1906, LENIN, fully recognizing the October Revolution of 1917 as the resultant in the agrarian events of 1904-05 the har- of several compounded forces of which the bingers of a social revolution, nevertheless saw peasantry is a leading one, then, to a large ex- fit to admonish his followers in these words: tent as the peasantry shifts, so does the direction "We are supporting the peasant movement to of the Revolution. In the crucial year of the the last, but we must remember that this is not Soviet Republic, in 1921, he insisted that "only the class which is capable of bringing about or an agreement with the peasantry can save the will bring about a socialist revolution."' This social revolution in Russia until the revolution attitude toward the peasantry flows directly takes place in other countries."5 As the pros- from what Lenin called a "truism" known to pects of an early communist outbreak abroad every Marxian, that the "leading social forces faded away, an understanding with the peasants in every capitalistic society are the proletariat became the central point of Lenin's policies. and the bourgeoisie, while all the other social When Lenin, through the promulgation of the groups who occupy an intermediate position.. . New Economic Policy, spoke of establishing a inevitably gravitate in the direction of the first closer link (smychka) between the workers and or second major group."2 In the light of the the peasants, it was more than the expression position of the peasantry during the French of a temporary policy; it was the premise upon Revolution, in the revolutionary movement of which rested the possible solution of the peas- the nineteenth century in Western Europe, and ant problem and, by the same token, the de- in the first decade of the twentieth in Russia, velopment and preservation of the Soviet state. Lenin held that "all the attempts of the petite- The practical expression of this all-important bourgeoisie in general, and the peasantry in link is the socialization of agriculture. This pro- particular, to assert their power and direct eco- ceeds along two lines: the organization of peas- nomic and political policies along their own ant collective farms and the organization of lines, ended in defeat.", Soon after the outbreak state farms. The present inquiry is concerned of the February Revolution of 1917 he warned with the former, which the Communists view his followers that a union of the peasantry with at this moment as the most important way of the bourgeoisie might take place. Hence, "the solving the peasant problem. proletarian party at present must not place any hopes on the community of interests of the proletariat and the peasantry. We are striving to win the peasantry over to our side; the peas- On the Relationship between Soviet antry, however, is more or less consciously on Industry and Agriculture the side of the capitalists."4 Despite this critical attitude, Lenin was The Soviet government viewed the situation in aware of the fact that the October Revolution the village with great misgivings. It realized would not have triumphed but for the support that it could not "eliminate the kulaks as a class of the poor and middle peasants. He realized through taxation and other restrictive measures, the importance of an alliance between the while leaving in their hands the means of pro- workers and the majority of the peasants, since duction and the right of making free use of the the role of the latter group in a still overwhelm- land."' The Soviet government was compelled to acquiesce in a state of affairs where the kulaks played an important role in the village, 1. N. Lenin, Pcresmotr Agrarnoi Programmy for any other policy was bound to court "sure Rabochei Partii (A Reexamination of the Agrarian failure, strengthen the position of kulakism and Program of the Workers Party) (St. Petersburg [Leningrad), 1906), p. 27. 2. N. Lenin, Sobranie Sochinenii (Collected IWlorks) (Moscow, 2d ed), vol. 23, p. 290. 5. Ibid., vol. 22, p. 238. 3. Ibid., vol. 26, p. 290. 6. J. Stalin, Voprosy Leninizma [Problems of 4. Ibid., vol. 20, p. 245. Leninism) (Moscow, 1931), p. 463. 26 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 leave ... [the State] without grain."7 The rich "an independent class which after the crushing peasants of the Russian village had taken advan- defeat and expulsion of the landed nobility and tage of their strategic position as producers, the capitalists, remains as the only class capable and by the end of the decade they were a force of challenging the political supremacy of the sufficiently large to warrant serious attention. proletariat."' The middle-class peasants, the seredniaki, The industrial progress attained by 1928 had who, in 1926, composed 56.4 percent of the fundamentally changed the relative position of total peasant population,' became the central industry and the prevailing system of agri- figures in the village. The old agricultural sys- culture. Although agriculture in the Soviet tem revolved about them. The aim of the Com- Union during its best years, 1925-1927, showed munists was to cultivate in them the element a year-to-year increase in its aggregate com- of the toiler at the expense of the seller and to modity production, its rate of progress was draw them gradually into the ranks of the slower than that of industry. Whereas in 1926- builders of socialism. But at this very time the 1927 Soviet industry exceeded the prewar pro- sellers' proclivities asserted themselves with duction level, the total agricultural production greater force than ever before, due largely to for the same year was only 88.1 percent of that the government's policy of maintaining a high of 1913.1" The agricultural production in 1926- price level for manufactured goods and a corre- 1927 was 30 percent greater than that of 1923- sponding low price for agricultural products. 1924, but the percentage of marketable grain The so-called "scissors" problem, which has was even slightly less than in the earlier year." characterized Soviet economics for many years This seemingly paradoxical situation is prob- now, found its expression in this inequitable ably traceable to the refusal of the peasants to price disparity between manufactured goods part with their produce at low prices. The and the products of the village. It is true that generally slow progress in agriculture was the "scissors" contributed much toward the re- traced by the Soviet government not so much habilitation of Soviet industry, but in view of to the dissatisfaction of the peasants with the the fact that this industrial growth was achieved government's price policy as to the general largely at the expense of the village, it accentu- breakup of the large estates and some of the ated the already existing schism between the large peasant farms into smaller and smaller interests of the city and those of the village. units where economic farming was impossible. All efforts on the part of the Soviet government Even if the price relationship had not adversely to effect a close working union with the great affected the development of agriculture, the mass of the middle peasantry were, for the time existing system of small peasant farms pro- being, unavailing. In the quiet but grim eco- ducing 11 bushels of wheat and 4.5 bushels of nomic struggle with the city, this most impor- barley as compared with 17 bushels of wheat tant section of the village identified its eco- and 9 bushels of barley per acre formerly pro- nomic and political interests with the kulaks duced on the large estates was bound to slow up rather than with the proletarian state. Under the development of agriculture and to curtail these circumstances, eleven years after the Octo- the amount of marketable grain.12 ber Revolution, there was ample justification The existing situation cannot be properly for Lenin's statement made in 1921 to the effect evaluated apart from its relationship to the vast that the village, after the Revolution, became scheme of industrialization of the country. If more petit-bourgeois and as such represented the existing tendencies in agriculture were al- lowed to proceed unchecked, the program of industrialization would be jeopardized. The ful- 7. Ibid., p. 458. fillment of the program depended upon impor- 8. I. A. Iakovlev, K Voprosu o Sotsialisticheskoi Rekonstruktsii Selskogo Khoziaistva (On the Prob- lem of Socialist Reconstruction of Agriculture] (Len- ingrad, 1928), p. 1. Iakovlev defines a middle peasant 9. N. Lenin, op. cit., vol. 22, p. 289. as one who cultivates from two to eight "desiatins" 10. 1. A. Iakovlev, op. cit., p. 357. of land and owns from one to two head of work 11. Ibid., p. 352. animals. 12. Ibid., p. 353. Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union 27 tation of machinery and of a great variety of Russia's main item of export, along with the raw materials from abroad. Soviet Russia, how- growing grain shortage in the cities arid indus- ever, had not sufficient gold and was unable to trial centers, threatened to undermine the main procure long-term credits abroad to finance her pillars upon which the plan rested. purchases. The only way out was to finance im- Immediately prior to the inauguration of the ports with the proceeds from exports, primarily vast program of industrialization, it became the export of agricultural products which had obvious that the prevailing system of small-scale always played an important role in Russia's agriculture failed to meet the demands made foreign trade, accounting for 73.7 percent of upon it. With the system left intact, the situa- the gross Russian export in 1913." In 1924 tion was bound to become worse with the appli- Soviet industry was started on the road toward cation of the five-year plan. From the point of rehabilitation because the Soviet Union was view of the existing economic relationship, be- thus able to pay for the imported machines." tween the city and the village at the end of the Three years later, confronted with a vastly decade 1918-1928, the former was moving to- greater and more significant industrial plan, the ward a socialist form of industrial organization; Fifteenth Party Congress expressed its dissatis- the latter, toward a capitalistic form. Industry faction with the agricultural situation in the and agriculture did not constitute a single na- following resolution: "The backwardness [of tional economic whole. Notwithstanding the the old system of agriculture] hampers . . . the fact that the land was owned by the state, the export of agricultural products which is the city with its large centralized and partly so- basis of import operations necessary for a more cialized industry had its antithesis in the small rapid industrialization of the country, and the and extremely backward individualistic system further development of agriculture itself."' In of peasant farming. From the Communist point other words, agriculture was still looked upon of view, this was an economic anachronism as the main item upon which the import plan which "would some day end in a complete had to be based. But in 1927 the relative im- breakdown of the entire national economy""' if portance of agricultural products in the total it were not corrected. Only a system of large- mass of exports declined from 73.7 to 57 per- scale mechanized agriculture could avert such cent, then to 46 percent in 1928.1' The year an outcome. This was to be realized not through 1928, when the five-year plan had assumed the introduction into the village of capitalistic concrete form, ended with a 20 percent decrease large-scale enterprise but, on the contrary, by in agricultural exports." This decline of Soviet the eradication of all its vestiges. And the Com- munist Party decided that the surest way of achieving this end was the further consolidation 13. Statisticheskii Spravochnik [Statistical Hand- of the small farms into large ones equipped book of the U.S.S.R.1 (Moscow, 1932), p. 392. with modern machinery. Therein lay the guar- 14. L. L. Popov, "Osnovy Perspektivnogo Plana antee that the problem of "either back to capi- Razvitiia Selskogoi Lesnogo Khoziaistva" The Basis alism or forward to socialism"" would be of the Tentative Plan for the Development of Agri- als orfwrdtsciim"' oudb cultural and Forest Economy], Planovoe Khoziaistvo solved in favor of the latter alternative. (Planned Economy) (Moscow, August 1925), p. 19. 15. Pravda (December 21, 1927). 16. Statisticheskii Spravochnik (Statistical Hand- book of the U.S.S.R.} (Moscow, 1929), p. 719. 18. Stalin, p. 444. 17. Ibid. 19. Ibid., p. 445. 28 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 2. Soviet State Grain Farms Ladejinsky wrote two papers dealing with Soviet state farms. The first, much longer and more comprehensive, appeared in the Political Science Quarterly in two parts in March and June of 1938. The concluding section of the second and more circumscribed paper, which deals with the state grain farms only, is given here. Together with his first paper on the collectivization of Soviet agriculture, these papers provide important early background for Ladejinsky's anticollectivist convictions. Two other early conclusions are: that the problems of large-scale agriculture, contrary to Soviet expectations, are less amenable to solution than are those of large-scale industry; and that large-scale agriculture does not necessarily equate with greater efficiency and lower costs. The paper also has a certain contemporary, if background, interest in view of severe grain shortages in the Soviet Union in recent years and its consequent need to import substantial tonnages from the United States, Canada, and other Western sources. This article appeared in Foreign Agriculture, a monthly publication of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in October 1938. IN SUMMARIZING THE DEVELOPMENT of state the extent of raising them to the position of grain farms, it is well to recall that they were "cultural agronomic centers." If the proper ap- expected to achieve the following aims: in- plication of agricultural science is the real test crease the country's agricultural output, serve of a model agricultural undertaking, then the as "model" agricultural centers, and prove to state grain farms have failed to pass it, judging the peasants that large-scale agriculture is vastly by the following statement: superior to their small-scale individual farming. It is no exaggeration to say that in the entire Did the farms achieve these aims? To answer system of the Commissariat of State Farms this question is to point out the role played by there is not a single grain farm where agri- these farms in the Soviet agricultural economy. cultural science was raised to a proper level. The state grain farms unquestionably added By the proper level we have in mind essen- to the country's agricultural resources. During tially elementary conditions: sowings on the period 1931-1935, the total grain area of fallowed and fall plowed land; good quality the Soviet Union was increased by an annual of the fallow and fall plowing; timeliness of average of 9 million acres. Considering the sowings and utilization of a rational crop great efforts exerted by the government to i- rotation system. These elementary measures are being applied in all the better organized crease the country's agricultural output, the . ei ae ial the bte ogan ...collective farms but they are not being extension of the sown area under grain farms made use of by the greater number of state must be viewed as an achievement. On the farms.' other hand, it must be kept in mind that the grain output, in consequence of low yields, was In view of the above, state grain farms were not large enough to compensate for the huge unable to convince the peasants of the alleged investments that accompanied the rapid acre- age expansion. 1. V. Feigin, "Concerning the Profitability of Since 1935 the work of state grain farms has State Grain Farms," Socialist Reconstruction of Agri- shown considerable improvement, but not to culture, No. 12 (1935), p. 65. Soviet State Grain Farms 29 benefits of large-scale farming. They had, there- tion that "the larger the farm, the smaller the fore, little to do with the shift of the Russian cost of production" cannot be supported as a peasants from their small, individualistic to a general proposition. large, collectivistic system of agriculture. Dur- Finally, it is obvious now that state grain ing the years 1929-1933 when the greater num- farms are not mere adjuncts to tractors and ber of collective farms was organized, the work combines, although the importance of the latter of the state grain farms was notoriously poor. should not be underestimated. The validity of If the latter had really been models of a recon- the following statement made by Professor structed agricultural economy, collectivization Tulaikov in 1931 has been fully demonstrated: of agriculture in the Soviet Union would have pfgrocd re a a he Sower pace. WoI understand very well that the utilization of Thoed sat rai fslwere et upthe tractor is an exceedingly important as- The state grain farms were set uip uinder pc ftewr owihw aet a difficult conditions. Everything that goes into pect of the work to which we have to pay diffcul conitins.Everthig tat ges nto particular attention. It must be stressed, how- the making of a modern large-scale agricultural p undertaking had to be built from the grounc ever, that we are not building grain farms Sin order to utilize tractors, but are utilizing up. This would not have been an easy task even if the necessary prerequisites had been at hand tra in o t eeve a efra ouu of grain. . . . I believe that the farm as such -such as good land, experienced management, has the right to exist and is not a mere ad- skilled labor, and ample time in which to orga- . nize the farms. But during the period under junct to the tractor. Granting this premise, consideration, many of these elements were agricultural science is entitled to more con- considratio, man of thseielmentswere completely lacking or available only to a limited sideration. degree. Furthermore, in organizing the state Soviet authorities are aware now that, while grain farms, the Soviet leaders proceeded on a modern agricultural machines can make the ap- number of theoretical assumptions that proved plication of agricultural science more effective, unworkable. they cannot take its place. One of these theories was that large-scale The state grain farm has always been viewed industry and large-scale agriculture follow the by the government as the true socialist type of same patterns of development. Without going agricultural enterprise and more in consonance into a discussion of whether or not this holds with the Soviet economy as a whole than is the true under any or all circumstances, suffice it to collective farm. But the government's policy of say that in the Soviet Union, and in the period decreasing the land area of the state grain farms under consideration, it was not substantiated, and adding it to the collectives indicates that the It was revealed that, in both fields, given good latter are the more efficient producers. It is pos- management, proper equipment, and skillful sible that at some future time the state grain workers, it is easier to manage and control the farms will become efficient producers, but this work of a large industrial plant than of a large will be achieved not because of any inherent farm; that, because of such an uncontrollable advantages peculiar to these farms but rather factor as climate, for instance, the planning by a combination of all those factors that are programs of state grain farms must be less essential to good farming tinder any economic rigid and more flexible than those of industrial system. undertakings; that narrow specialization of state grain farms retards, rather than advances, their development; and that, notwithstanding 2. The Organization of Large Socialist Grain the claims made by Soviet economists, the no- Farms (Moscow, 1931), p. 90. 30 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 3. Agricultural Problems of India This 1939 study of India's agricultural problems is the first piece of work Ladejinsky ever did on India. It was part of the intellectual equipment Ladejinsky brought with him when he arrived in India for the first time in 1950 for discussions with the Planning Commission. Curiously, the paper was not uncovered by searches made at the U.S. Department of Agri- culture. This first encounter in what was to be his long and arduous courtship with India was turned up, by chance, while rummaging among his personal papers. The more descriptive first half of the paper is omitted here. This article appeared in Foreign Agriculture in August 1939. Some Approaches to a Solution progress, it is pertinent to inquire first into the attempts to deal with these problems. THE AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS described [in the section omitted} are not merely temporary Easing the debt burden depression phenomena but the depression ag- gravated the forces that have been undermining In regard to the problem of debt reduction, the country's agricultural economy for many there must be distinguished two types of re- years past. Relatively few measures have been medial action-that by the government through advanced, however, with a view to easing the legislation and that through agricultural co- agricultural difficulties engendered by the de- operatives. The latter will be discussed in the pression. Despite the catastrophic fall of agri- section dealing with the Indian cooperative cultural prices, hardly anything has been under- movement as a whole. taken to raise them or stabilize them at definite The government has long realized the need levels. The devaluation of the rupee after the of checking the activities of the usurious pound sterling went off gold had very little moneylender, upon whom the peasants chiefly effect on the revival of prices. It was felt that rely for credit. The Deccan peasant riots of the "natural" operation of economic forces 1875, an important feature of which was an should not be tampered with and that sooner or attack on the moneylenders, led to the passage later the depression would work itself out. Cer- of the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of tain provincial governments of India have 1879. The act provided that, in suits by or helped the peasants by remitting some of the against farmers, the court was permitted to ex- land revenue, by cancelling certain dues, and amine the history of the debt and makes it by forcing reduction of rent. On the whole, obligatory for creditors to furnish a written ac- however, these measures were not sufficient to count of the money actually due. Other provi- offset the additional decline in income created sions required creditors to furnish accounts and by the agricultural crisis of the last decade. grant receipts, and stipulate that mortgages of Although there is little in India of the kind farmers must be in writing. The court, in taking of agricultural relief prevalent now in a great account of past transactions, could modify the many countries, efforts have been made from contract by reducing an oppressive rate of in- time to time, and especially during the thirties, terest and by preventing the sale of land unless to ease some of the burdens from which the specifically pledged. In the hope that litigation peasants suffered even before the depression. would decrease, the statute of limitations, which Since farm indebtedness and tenancy are per- since 1859 had been for eight years only, was haps the two greatest obstacles to India's rural extended for suits against agriculturists to a Agricultural Problems of India 31 period of twelve years if the suit was based on their agents. There must be indicated not only a registered deed and to a period of eight years the amount outstanding but also all loan trans- if it was not. Minor amendments were made actions entered into during the preceding eight in the course of time, such as the giving of months. If no accounts are kept, the court may wider powers to the courts in order to deter- in any suit disallow, either wholly or in part, mine the nature of the transaction indepen- the interest found due and also the cost of the dently of the provisions of the law regarding suit. But like so much other legislation in this documentary evidence. This act is now in opera- field, its provisions did not give adequate relief tion throughout the province of Bombay. to debtors. The illiteracy of the peasants and Years of application revealed that the act sometimes of the moneylenders, the unwieldi- was ineffective as a means of safeguarding the ness of court procedure, the expense of litiga- interests of the cultivators. An investigation of tions, and the lack of sufficient alternative the Famine Commission of 1900 found that sources of credit contributed greatly to what 'the Act had done but little good and that the commission described as the "extraordinary there was positive room for holding that the difficulty of attaining the objects in view by transfer of property both by sale and mortgage means of legislation." had become more frequent in the districts to Despite the failure of the measures enacted which it applied."' Several years later the same prior to 1930, the worsening of agricultural commission summarized its conclusion on the conditions since then stimulated the promulga- same subject in the following words: "it is a tion of a number of very important laws in- contest of dishonesty, in which that side is tended to ease the burden of the debtors. What likely to gain the upper hand which is prepared is being done in the central provinces, and to a to go farthest in perjury and in the production more limited extent in the province of Madras of false evidence. . . . Hence it is that an Act and in the native state of Bhavnagar, is charac- whose main object was to put the relations be- teristic of the general trend of legislation in tween the agriculturists and moneylenders on a other sections of the country. better footing, is actually having an opposite In 1933 the government of the central prov- effect.' '2 inces promulgated a Debt Conciliation Act, the Another measure, just as ineffective, was the main feature of which was the setting up of Usurious Loans Act of 1918. An important conciliation boards for debt adjustment. Having feature of the act "is that the court, once seized examined the transaction between the creditor of a case, may, of its own motion, re-open old and debtor, the board renders its decision as to transactions and enquire into the equity of the the sum to be repaid, as well as the way of terms. . . . Where the debt is unsecured, the making the payment. The award is not uncondi- debtor can draw the creditor into court and, rionally binding. If a creditor refuses to agree therefore, into the sphere of this Act, by the to terms considered by the board to be reason- simple expedient of refusing to renew his able, the board makes clear who the obdurate loan."" It was hoped that this measure would party is through a special certificate. Should the lead to the reduction of interest as well as fix creditor then resort to court, he would be penal- a maximum interest rate, but according to the ized by not getting the costs of the suit and Commission "the Act is practically a dead letter by having the interest charges from the date in all provinces." The Punjab Regulation of of the certificate reduced to 6 percent. If a Accounts Bill of 1930 provided that all money- debtor defaults in payments as agreed, the lenders must use regular account books and amount may be recovered in the same manner furnish each debtor every eight months with a as arrears of land revenue on the application of legible statement of accounts signed by them or the creditor. Failure to recover such arrears in- validates the agreement. The work of the conciliation boards in the 1. Report of the Royal Commission on Agri- central provinces met with considerable success. culture in India, p. 437. Within a period of four years, 46,537 cases in- 2. Ibid., p. 438. volving an amount of 56.8 million rupees 3. Ibid. (about U.S. $21,000,000) were settled. The 32 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 total amount was reduced to 29.3 million rupees a payment of 2 million rupees, or what was, in (about U.S. $11,000,000), or a remission of effect, a sum equal to the payment of a year's 48 percent of the debt.- The government of interest. The cultivators and the government the central provinces promulgated also the revenue benefited from this change. The slate Usurious Loans Amendment Act of 1934, with having been wiped clean of debts, payments of a view to keeping interest rates within certain land revenue proceeded without any difficulty bounds; namely, 12 percent on secured and IS and in many cases even arrears were paid off. percent on unsecured loans. Moreover, debt litigation, of which there had The most drastic attempt to scale down past previously been a great deal, almost disap- debts in India is embodied in the Madras Agri- peared. culturists' Relief Act of 1938. A relatively small It is to be noted, of course, that the sum group of cultivators is brought within the scope involved was a small one and that there is no of the act, but its main provisions indicate that indication that such a scheme of debt redemp- the government of the province was approach- tion by the state and provincial governments is ing the problem in earnest. Thus, debts incurred finding wide application. But even if all debts before October 1, 1932, were reduced in the were wiped out now by government decrees, following manner: "(1) All interest outstand- the problem would remain unsolved unless the ing on the 1st October 1937, in favour of any factors making for indebtedness were also creditor of an agriculturist . . . shall be deemed eliminated. So long as the peasant operates on to be discharged, and only the principal or such a deficit budger, he will run into debt. In this portion thereof as may be outstanding shall be connection the Bombay Banking Enquiry Corn- deemed to be the amount repayable by the mittee made the following observation a decade agriculturist on that date; (2) where an agri- ago: "Our examination of the problem of debt culturist has paid to any creditor twice the leads us to conclude that its incidence would amount of the principal whether by way of not be so onerous and its growth not so serious, principal or interest or both, such debt includ- were the margin between income and expendi- ing the principal shall be deemed to be wholly tUre higher than what it is today . . . even if discharged."-' the incidence of interest is reduced consider- Perhaps even more significant was the man- ably, the success of any scheme for liquidation ner in which the native state of Bhavnagar of debt would be problematical, should the agri- attacked the debt problem. The plan called for cultural conditions remain as they are now." the outright liquidation of the peasants' debts The statement is as true now as it was ten years through the financial assistance of the govern- ago. The lasting solution, therefore, is in turn- ment. The total debt having been determined, ing India's largely deficit agricultural economy a settlement was arranged whereby the sum to into a profitable economy. be paid by an individual debtor was not larger than three times the annual land revenue as- Improving slatus of tenants sessment. The scheme was financed by the gov- . ernment, which advanced the necessary sum With respect to farm tenancy, the chief aim on for the redemption of the individual debts, the the part of the various governments of India advance being repayable in installments by the has not been to legislate it out of existence; addition of 4 percent to the annual land tax. rather the purpose has been to secure for the The total of all debts, of which the nominal tenant greater certainty of tenure and to safe- amount according to the books of the money- guard him against eviction, unfair rent, and lenders was 8.6 million rupees, was settled by illegal exactions. Practically nothing has been done along these lines in the past decade, but the legislation enacted in former years indicates 4. P. J. Thomas, "Debt Relief in Central Prov- the nature of the remedies designed for the inces," The Indian Co-operative Review (July- improvement of the lot of the tenants. September 1937), p. 394. 5. Law quoted in the editorial notes of The In- dian Co-operative Review (January-March 1938), 6. Quoted by Ambalal D. Patel in Indian Agri- p. 4. cultural Economics (1937), p. 256. Agricultural Problems of India 33 The first experiment in tenancy legislation Developments in the province of Agra are was made in 1859 when the Bengal Tenancy of interest. Until 1928, the majority of tenants Act was promulgated. Its significance lay in could be evicted or their rent raised at ten-year the provision that tenants-at-will who had been intervals. This brought about so much litigation cultivating the same land for twelve years con- that the number of evictions in 1923 reached a tinuously were to become occupancy tenants. high of 157,000, and in 1924 a total of 620,000 This meant life tenure in the land and protec- suits were instituted. The existing tenancy act tion from arbitrary enhancement of rent. The was amended in 1928 in one very important re- act failed, however, to achieve its objective be- spect: it granted life tenure in the land to every cause the landlords saw to it that no tenant tenant-at-will (nonoccupancy) and after his rented the same piece of land for a continuous death the right of the heir to hold the land for twelve-year period. The new Tenancy Act of another five years. Moreover, whereas formerly 1885 corrected this situation. Accordingly, a the landlord had a right to ask for a higher tenant could acquire occupancy rights by rent- rent every ten years, the period has now been ing any land in the same village for twelve extended to twenty. The increase in rent is not years. An occupancy tenant could transfer his determined by the landlord but by a special right of life tenure in the land, subject to a officer whose duty it is to propose fair and special payment to the landlord. A landlord equitable rates, "based on genuine, adequate, might ask for a higher rental only once in and stable rents which are paid by the substan- fifteen years, and the increase was restricted to tial tenants who depend for their livelihood on one-eighth of the rent previously paid. The in- the produce of their holdings and can be paid crease could be effected either through agree- without hardship over a series of years, clue re- ment between landlord and tenant or through gard being had to movements in prices and court action. A civil court might increase the rents and the letting value of land."7 rent only on certain specified grounds, the most The nature of the tenancy legislation just important of which were as follows: (a) When described is generally characteristic of the work the rate paid was lower than that paid for done in this field throughout India. On the similar land in the neighborhood; (b) when whole, it has provided tenants with greater se- there had been a rise in the average local prices curity of tenure and has limited the arbitrari- of staple foodcrops since the rent was last fixed; ness with which landlords have raised rents. But and (c) when the productive powers of the considering the conditions under which tenants land had been increased by improvements still cultivate the land, the inadequacy of the effected at the landlord's expense. A certain de- measures is all too obvious. Rents are still high gree of protection was extended also to non- and are getting higher because of the steadily occupancy tenants; they could be evicted only rising competition for the land; illegal exactions by court order and their rents be raised only are paid by the tenants as in days gone by, and once in any five-year period. These provisions so are premiums or lump sums over and above are found now in most of the tenancy acts of the rent when a transfer of occupancy rights is India. effected; and, even when life tenancy is granted, The tenancy legislation of Bengal served as eviction is by no means uncommon because a basis for similar legislation in other parts of the same laws vested the landlords with exten- the country, although measures taken in some sive powers against the nonpayment of rents. provinces were more comprehensive. The Ten- Under the Agra Tenancy Act, litigation and ancy Act (1920) of the central provinces evictions declined sharply, but in 1934-35 there brought about a very material change in the were nearly 84,000 cases of eviction. Moreover, relations between the landlords and tenants, there are millions of so-called undertenants mainly to the benefit of the latter. It did away whose interests, except in the central provinces, with the division of tenants into occupancy and nonoccupancy; under the provisions of the act every tenant, regardless of the length of time 7. S. N. A. Jafri, History and Status of Landlords he held the land, was given the permanent right and Tenants in the United Provinces (Allahabad, of occupation. The Pioneer Press, 1931), p. 138. 34 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 are not protected by the existing tenancy legis- were not exceptions. Having subjected many lation. Many an occupancy tenant sublets the aspects of Indian agriculture to a thorough ex- land to the actual cultivator of the soil (under- amination in looking for a remedy, the com- tenant), thereby converting him "into a person mission concluded that "if cooperation fails, without any adequate protection safeguarding there will fail the best hope of rural India." to him the fruits of his toil."' There are also The cooperative movement was officially more than 30 million land laborers with a launched in 1904, and its sole objective was to status inferior to that of the least protected break the vicious credit system of the money- undertenants. Finally, the measures intended lenders by providing loans to cultivators at rea- for the protection of the tenants do not strike sonable rates. In 1935 and 1936 India had a at the roots of the grave situation created by total of 94,000 agricultural cooperatives with the constant rise in the number of landless over 3 million members and a working capital peasants, the transfer of land to moneylenders, of 323 million rupees (U.S. $121 million). and the long array of middlemen who profit With the exception of Bengal, Punjab, and from the complexities of the present land sys- Madras provinces, the movement has so far tem and widen the cleavage between the main reached only a small part of the rural popula- rent receivers and the actual tillers of the land. tion, and it has been estimated that in the The problem of land tenure in India is ad- Punjab only about 15 percent of the loans are mittedly an extremely complicated one and it provided by the credit societies. This indicates does not lend itself to ready solution. The vari- that the moneylenders still hold sway even in ous tenancy acts have not materially affected provinces where the cooperative movement is the existing relationships which are responsible strongest. On the other hand, it is not denied for many of the ills of the peasantry. There can that where cooperatives have taken root they be no visible improvement, however, in the have provided a fair amount of credit at rates Indian countryside unless the basic economic ranging from 9 to 15 percent. The rates are and legal conditions are changed in favor of high, but they are considerably lower than those who actually cultivate the land. It is with those charged by moneylenders. Where the co- this view in mind that Professor Mukerjee operative movement is strongly entrenched, came to the following conclusions: "Some . . . there has been a general lowering of the rate revision of the old relations is necessary in of interest charged by the moneylenders and India to ensure the peasant being economically their grip on the peasant has been loosened. as well as legally set free. The present deteriora- Certain achievements have been registered tion of the position of the tenant forebodes an by the societies in the way of controlling credit agrarian revolution; and unless the situation is and restricting unproductive debts. The money- handled boldly and sagaciously, it will end in lender seldom inquires into the purpose of the disaster."' loan when the borrower's credit is good, pro- tecting himself against loss by a high rate of Cooperation interest. The aim of the credit society, however, is to make sure that the larger part of the loan While the palliatives dealing with indebtedness will be utilized productively. Owing to custom, and land tenure have little helped the mass of some nonproductive expenditure has to be ac- the Indian peasantry, the cooperative movement cepted as necessary (in the sense of being is being looked upon as a real source of rural socially useful or unavoidable, even if not eco- progress. The often referred-to report of the nomically beneficial); and it is better for mem- Royal Commission on Agriculture noted that bers to borrow from the society than from the "cooperative principles can be used in over- village moneylender even for such purposes. coming most of the obstacles to progress in But in all such cases the loans are granted spar- rural communities," and that those of India ingly and under close supervision. The success of this policy is illustrated by the fact that from 8. Radhakamal, Mukerjec, Land Problems of 60 to 70 percent of the loans advanced by the India (London, 1933), p. 182. cooperatives are utilized for productive pur- 9. Ibid., p. 197. poses. Agricultural Problems of India 35 The influence exerted by the cooperative contribute much toward the improvement of movement on the Indian village cannot be the social and economic status of the peasantry. measured alone in terms of relieving peasants A significant example of what cooperatives from the burden of usury. Although the credit can achieve is found in the consolidation of society is still the cornerstone of the whole scattered holdings. Since fragmentation is in movement, within its province now fall numer- many parts of India one of the most important ous noncredit activities, all of which tend to factors tending to block agricultural improve- promote the general welfare of the village coin- mients, various attempts have been made to munity. It has long been felt that, if the great cope with the problem. The task is a difficult number of cultivators are to be won over to one; the fact that some cultivate their own use of better seeds; to improved methods of land whereas others rent a part or all of it to cultivation; to better care of cattle; to adoption tenants and that there are rights of mortgages of precautions against human, animal, and plant to be considered and, above all, that there are disease; and to more efficient marketing, it must great differences in the quality of the land set be through the agency of their own cooperative for consolidation produces an element of con- societies. In view of the widespread illiteracy fusion in the discussion of the evils of subdivi- among the peasantry, no official organization sion and fragmentation and of the proposed could possibly do it by pamphlets or written remedies. instruction, and no experts could reach the On the whole, action through legislation has multitude through any medium other than co- been found wanting; a fair degree of compul- operatives. sion and a revision of the country's basic laws A mere enumeration of the principal types of inheritance appear necessary if far-reaching of noncredit societies brings out the vast scope results are to be secured. Measures of the type of the work in which they are engaged with required are not contemplated, as evidenced by varying degrees of success. There are purchas- the observation of the Royal Commission: "The ing and sales societies as well as industrial, main policy of any government embarking irrigation promotion, insurance, housing, better upon a campaign for the consolidation of hold- farming, better living, consolidation of hold- ings must be to achieve progress by education." ings, and a number of other societies with ob- Educational action through the cooperatives in jects ranging from education promotion to the Punjab, however, has produced some strik- arbitration. The functions of the better farming ing results. Special cooperative societies for and better living societies show to what extent consolidation are organized. Every member rural reconstruction has become a part of the must agree to give and take possession of lands cooperative movement. The aims of the better reallotted in accordance with any arrangement farming societies include measures to promote approved by two-thirds of the membership. The better agricultural methods; to supply good same provision holds good in case of future seed and improved agricultural implements; to partitions or rearrangement of the consolidated demonstrate the more recent improvements in land; and they must agree also to submit to agriculture and to render practical assistance in arbitration any dispute that may arise in con- theiriaplcatio; and to deractil fdssian inection with the society's business. Consolida- their application; and to create funds for loans tion is carried out in two ways: by mutual to members for purchase of good implements, to scridoti w as ymta toamembersnforepurchae oftter goo g sleets' exchange of fields to bring the scattered fields manure, and seed. The better living societies of each owner into blocks as near to one another lay greater emphasis on reforms of social cus- as possible, and by treating all land offered for toms. They make efforts to improve the physi- consolidation as common land and dividing it cal, moral, and spiritual conditions of the mem- into suitable compact blocks. bers; to inculcate habits of thrift; to teach and In the period 1921-1937, the cooperatives practice rules of hygiene; and to eradicate illit- succeeded in consolidating in the Punjab an eracy among members. When the human and area of nearly 800,000 acres. But many millions economic wastage of which an Indian village of acres are still so fragmented that the appli- is capable is considered, it is evident that the cation of improved methods of cultivation is successful carrying out of the above aims would virtually precluded. The point is, however, that 36 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 the cooperatives have shown that the evil of province of the country. It is doubtful, of fragmentation can be attacked successfully. In course, whether the cooperatives will prove a one case 35,000 scattered strips of land were panacea for all the ills of the Indian village consolidated into 4,500 blocks, while in another community. The fact is that the majority of instance 50,000 acres were rearranged so that those who cultivate the land lack the resources the average size of block of the 7,951 owners that should enable them to take advantage of was increased from one-half to nearly 3 acres."' the cooperative movement. The tens of millions As a result of this process, the participants do of tenants and farm laborers who do not own not receive less land than they held before; on land are not in a position to offer security for the contrary, some land may be added by elimi- loans and, therefore, can get no help from the nating the strips. And no one is asked to agree credit societies. But as cooperation becomes to the repartition until he has seen his new more and more an integral part of a compre- holding marked out on the ground. Now that hensive agricultural policy, millions of peasants the advantages of consolidation have been illus- may be helped to a better life. trated in a practical manner, the wish to do A away with fragmentation is growing apace. The area consolidated in the Punjab during the Cooperation, tenancy, and debt relief measures period 1921-1925 averaged 8,000 acres yearly; have been discussed at some length because, if this figure rose to 56,000 acres in 1934 and to effective, they are important elements in any 120,000 acres in 1937. scheme to render farming more profitable. Yet The history of the cooperative movement in they are not the only remedies. Other recom- the thirty-five years of its existence has not been mendations and suggestions bearing even more one of continuous progress. There have been directly upon a higher farm income are found numerous failures and disappointments. As late in the Report of the Royal Comrnission on as 1938 the codirector of the Department of Agriculture. Some of them are pertinent to the Agriculture of the United Provinces pointed discussion and must therefore be touched upon out that "the Co-operative Movement in India here. has accumulated so much frozen capital as a The commission recognized that, while result of non-recovery of debts and the liquida- agricultural research was the foundation of rural tion of societies on a large scale that the present progress, in India such work was only in its period may be regarded as critical in the history infancy. Left without the stimulus of a central of the movement."" It should be noted that organization, research carried on in the various the cooperatives had been suffering from non- provinces in a haphazard manner was not yield- recovery of loans even before the depression ing the expected results-hence the recom- of recent years. The cure is in the educational mendation and eventual organization of an efforts of cooperation to effect some change in Imperial Council of Agriculture with the prin- the peasants listless and fatalistic outlook upon cipal function "to promote, guide, and coordi- life, thereby undermining their adherence to nate agricultural research throughout India." customs and traditions in social and agricultural At the present time the council is financing matters. Under conditions prevailing through- about ninety research projects covering crops, out the Indian countryside, the task is an ex- plant and animal diseases, cattle breeding, and tremely difficult one. But the beginning has marketing of agricultural products, as well as been made, even if on a small scale. Outstand- studies in soils and fertilizers. According ing examples of successful application of co- to the International Institute of Agriculture, operation can be found in practically every India now has 22 agricultural institutes and laboratories concerned with the improvement of crop production, about 300 experimental 10. Eleanor M. Hough, The Co-operative Move- and demonstration farms, and a teaching and ment in India (London, 1932), p. 185. research staff of 800 officers and assistants; 11. C. Maya Das, "The Co-operative Movement and Agricultural Development in the United Prov- nearly 2,000 officials are engaged in introducing inces," The Indian Co-operative Review (July- into general agricultural practice the successful September 1938), p. 354. results of research. The benefits derived by Agricultural Problems of India 37 farmers from dissemination of useful knowl- Expansion of irrigated areas edge cannot be overestimated. grculntrl imove met ved bOf all the factors that limit both the extension of land under cultivation and the yield per acre partments of agriculture are of little use unless . I they are incorporated into the farm practice of int nda The upply. aisfthe post i the cultivators. Since so many of the cultivators one coun inf rem is are illiterate, great reliance is placed upon . d ocular demonstration. That was considered to of the country; of irregular distribution through be the best method of convincing the culti- seasons; and, very often, of total lack of rain. The remedy is irrigation and yet moreirga vators of the advantages of agricultural io- iattached so much ton. Large areas of wasteland have thereby provement. The commission beahd omc importance to the value of demonstration and become productive, creating additional wealth. propaganda that it advised the establishment From about 10.5 million acres in 1879 the area of a new office of deputy director of agriculture, nually irrigated by state works alone has now attached to that of the director of agriculture risen to about 31 million acres. The govern- of each province, for the purpose of oment and the cultivators cooperate very closely in this work. The headworks of the canal; the and systematizing propaganda work. He wvas ando steatithearing sschmef propaganda main line, and the branches are all constructed also to watch the various schemes of propaganda an mitiedbthgormn;bute in operation, note their results, and suggest fed canne or te coures, b ma o way o iakngthe mreefeci.In13 field channels or water courses, by means of ways of making them more effective. In 1935. some 1,500 agricultural shows were held in .vhich the 'ater is finally conveyed onto the various parts oif the country and 86,000 demon- fields, are usually constructed and invariably strations were given on the cultivators' own maintained by the cultivators themselves. land. The commission's comprehensive study of It has been noted that the prosperity of irrigation conditions and needs has helped to .Stimulate the work in that field. On the comn- India's agriculture is intimately connected with siu .at teorkdin, at en,the oin- the quality of its livestock and that the latter is missions e maion, avCentraloar of poor. The remedy, as seen by the Royal Com- rigarn wa estabihe which a n or mission, is better feeding and breeding. Increase things, aimed to coordinate research in irriga- miso,i.etrfeigadbedn.Ices tion matters throughout India and to disseml- in the existing grazing area is not possible. It . .the produc- nate the results achieved; to bring about the tivity of the land already growing grass by regu- fullest collaboration between agricultural and irrigation departments; to secure an exchange lating grazing on a rotation system, cutting o - of inform-ation and experience in irrigation be- and storing dry grass, making silage, and culti- vatig fdde cros. n rgar to he mprve- tween the various provinces; and, above all, to vating fodder crops. In regard to the iprove-- ment of cattle by breeding, attempts have been forulat sches reedig and deve made to get purebred and improved types of ing irrigation projects wherever they may be the best cattle available in India. The Royal required. There are at present about 300 irriga- Commission determined that this program was tion schemes in operation in British India not to be weakened by efforts to produce a alone, of which 70 are major works. The net "dual purpose" animal suitable both for draught effect of the constantly expanding artificial irri- and milking. Another necessary link in the gation facilities is that millions of people no process of improving the quality of the cattle longer live, as they have continuously for centu- is the control of the contagious diseases prev- ries, in the shadow of periodically recurring alent throughout India. For the sake of greater crop failures caused by drought. effectiveness and to insure a uniform procedure in dealing with this problem, the commission Reduction of illiteracy recommended the promulgation of a Contagious Diseases of Animals Act. It meant the estab- Much of the evil that pervades the Indian lishmnent in India for the first time of a veter- countryside is generally attributed to illiteracy. inary service on a large scale and on a sound "This curse," as one writer noted, "acts as a footing. leaven to start the vicious circle of debt-disease- 38 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 and-death."2 The commission recognized the must industrialize on a gigantic scale and at a immensity of the task and noted "that the only very rapid pace. It is patent, however, that, be- hope of substantial progress lies in the mobili- cause of lack of capital, relative shortage of zation of all the available forces, both public mineral resources, limited domestic market due and private, in a determined attack upon il- to poverty, and difficulty of acquiring foreign literacy." markets for manufactured goods, no such In the belief that if a mother is literate a very scheme can now be put into operation. This strong influence will be brought to bear on does not preclude, however, the possibility of keeping her children at school until literacy is further industrial expansion, for, to date, it is assured, the first recommendation concerns the not commensurate with the size of the country spread of literacy among women of India. But or its population and natural resources. With perhaps the most important remedy suggested India's return to its former status (roughly by the commission is the introduction of a until the beginning of the nineteenth century) compulsory system of primary schools as the as both a manufacturing and an agricultural best means to overcome the unwillingness of country, a portion of the rural population would parents to send their children to school. In- be drawn off into industry. It would not bring efficient teaching is to be corrected by better about the desired balance between rural and training of teachers who were to be selected, urban population, but it would afford some wherever possible, from rural districts. In addi- relief to the hard-pressed villages struggling tion, the commission also made detailed recom- for mere subsistence. mendations concerning secondary schools, agri- cultural colleges, and universities-all with a view to making their graduates fit to take the Conclusion lead in the movement for the elimination of illiteracy and for the general uplift of the rural The discussion in the preceding pages has indi- classes. cated the nature of India's agricultural difficul- ties and the suggested remedies. Some advances Industrialization have been made in regulating the relations be- Finally, it must be noted that rural India cannot tween landlord and tenant, in scaling down solve all its many problems by tilling the soil, indebtedness, and in adopting better farm prac- no matter how efficiently. Villages are over- tices. These, however, touched only the fringe crowded. It is not certain how large the surplus of all those elements that make for the de- farm population is but, if the view of India's pressed state of the country's agriculture. Now, agricultural experts that the lowest limit of an as a decade ago, the following statement of economic holding in that country is 15 acres is the Royal Commission holds good: "To a very accepted, "in British India alone . . . as much as great extent the cultivator in India labors not 44 percent (or 36 million) of the total workers for profit nor for a net return but for sub- on land were superfluous."" In order to find sistence. The crowding of the people on the even a partial outlet for these millions, India land, the lack of alternative means of securing must be industrialized. Efforts in this direction a living, the difficulty of finding any avenue of are being made, and the development of a mod- escape and the early age at which a man is ern textile industry, employing over 400,000 burdened with dependents combine to force the workers, is an outstanding feature of the in- cultivator to grow food wherever he can and dustrial revolution in India. But to be really on whatever terms he can. effective, that is, to be able to absorb millions When one weighs the problems against the of workers from the overcrowded villages, India remedies, it becomes clear that the immediate future cannot bring forth any substantial relief. At best, the spread of education and coopera- 12. Matu Ran Ahlawat, "Economic Future of the tonthadpinfbscprcplsfagi Indian Cultivator," Indian Journal of Economics ton; the adoption of basic principles of agri- (October 1938), p. 329. cultural science; and the all-important changes 13. B. T. Ranadive, Population Problem of India in social, religious, and political customs and (London, 1930), p. 191. traditions are slow processes. Illiteracy, primi- Japan's Agricultural Crisis 39 tive equipment, poor cultivation of the soil, peasants will probably be improved. The ques- low yields, low standard of living, unsatisfactory tion is being raised, however, whether, in the landlord-tenant relations, indebtedness, diseases, long run, the material advancement would not and poverty-all these react upon one another be nullified by the growing pressure of the and are inextricably intertwined. This militates population on the land. It is the considered against piecemeal reforms. It is impossible, for opinion of the Royal Commission that "no example, to solve the indebtedness problem lasting improvement in the standard of living without providing for conditions that would of the great mass of the population can possibly make recourse to unproductive loans unneces- be attained if every enhancement in the pur- sary; nor is it possible to introduce improved chasing power of the cultivator is followed by methods of cultivation without first reducing a proportionate increase in the population." the ignorance and illiteracy so prevalent among An area estimated at about 100 million acres the peasants. By the same token, a higher is still available for cultivation, but as against standard of living of the peasantry depends not this there is the uninterrupted increase in popu- only upon improved yields but in no small de- lation so characteristic of India and the con- gree also upon basic changes in the iniquitous tinued division of the land into smaller and land tenure system. smaller units. Thus the problem "of many men There is nothing inherent in the makeup of on little land" and all the adverse corollary prob- an Indian peasant that prevents him from as- lems that follow from it are likely to be perpetu- similating knowledge or from realizing that ated unless the birth rate declines or a new out- "better farming" spells "better living." With the let is found for the surplus population. But active assistance of various agencies, both offi- these in turn raise a host of baffling new ques- cial and private, the economic status of the tions to which a ready answer cannot be given. 4. Japan's Agricultural Crisis This is the fourth of Ladejinsky's published articles on Japan. The first, "Farm Tenancy and Japanese Agriculture," published in Foreign Agriculture in September 1937, contributed in major degree, together with the present article, to the reputation which made it inevitable that Ladejinsky would be called upon after the war to play a key role in the Japanese land reform. That article is omitted here only because its substance is built into his postwar "Farm Tenancy in Japan," presented later in this volume. His second ("The Japanese Cotton-Textile Industry and American Cotton") is omitted because it is conventional in both subject and treatment as well as lacking in current interest. The third, "Agrarian Unrest in Japan," published in Foreign Affairs in January 1939, is essentially a more popular treatment of the article presented here; it is therefore also omitted. Ladejinsky deals here not only with farm tenancy but also with the high rents, interest charges, taxes, and other factors contributing to Japan's agricultural crisis and examines the inadequacy of government measures taken to deal with them. Interestingly, he draws attention to the Japanese military's special interest in agrarian problems. This article appeared in the Journal of Farm Economics in August 1939 (vol. 21, pp. 614-31). TODAY, AS IN THE PAST, agriculture remains industrialization in Japan in recent years has the backbone upon which the economic life of tended to obscure this fact. In reality, however, Japan rests. The unprecedented progress of the importance of agriculture in modern Japan 40 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 is still very great. The rural population still lion acres in 1936, or 16 percent of Japan's constitutes approximately 45 percent of the total land area. The extension of land under total; agriculture continues to be practically the crops in Japan was achieved mainly during the sole provider of the nation's food, while with first three decades of the period under con- respect to invested capital and value of net sideration; since then the arable area remained output, agriculture is the country's leading in- practically stationary. The topography of the dustry. country being generally steep and mountainous, The place of agriculture in Japan's national there is at present only a small undeveloped economy does not bespeak either rural pros- area which is suitable for cultivation. perity or rural progress. On the contrary, it is The fact that Japan's 5,595,000 farm fami- commonly agreed now that it has been suffering lies cultivate less than 15 million acres indicates from an ever-deepening crisis at a time when that the size of an individual holding is ex- Japanese industry and trade have been expand- tremely small. If the land were evenly dis- ing and prospering. The feudal concept that a tributed, each household would cultivate 2.5 farmer should maintain a low standard of liv- acres. In reality, great numbers of Japanese ing has continued to pervade Japanese agri- farmers cultivate much less than 2.5 acres. [See culture to this day. It helped to keep the village table.] in a state of contentment as long as agriculture Thirty-four percent of all the households could satisfy the frugal needs of the farmers. cultivate less than 1.2 acres each; 34.2 percent In recent years, however, Japan's agricultural from 1.2 to 2.4 acres; 21.5 percent from 2.4 to economy has not been able to provide even 4.8 acres, and only 9.5 percent cultivate more this minimum for a great number of farmers. than 4.8 acres. The first-mentioned group, com- This is attributed to numerous burdens that prising 1,896,000 families, cultivate an esti- Japanese farmers must shoulder and which mated total of 1,237,000 acres, while on the operate to their detriment even in "normal" opposite end of the scale one finds 78,000 fami- times. Chief among these are the country's lies who cultivate 1,482,000 acres of land. These very limited arable area and the extremely figures reveal how small the holdings are and small farm units; inequitable land distribution; the extent to which a great deal of the culti- widespread tenancy system; sharp price fluctu- vated land is found in comparatively few hands. ations; heavy tax load; huge indebtedness and Japan's limited crop area precludes the con- exorbitant interest rates, and, in consequence centration of land in great holdings. Official of these factors, the very low standard of living statistics record only 3,547 landowners with of the mass of Japanese farmers. over 125 acres each, the average size of these holdings being 300 acres, and 46,000 with an area of from 25 to 124 acres, or an average of The Problems 57 acres. Notwithstanding the scarcity of large properties, there is a striking inequality in the The characteristic feature of Japan's agriculture distribution of land ownership in Japan. Data that has given rise to a host of difficult prob- of the Ministry of Agriculture shed little light lems is the small area under cultivation in rela- on the exact distribution of land ownership; it tion to the rapidly growing population. The was estimated unofficially, however, that while utilization of the land is highly developed and 50 percent of all the farm households own only "not only the hillsides, but in some places even 9 percent of all the land, 7.5 percent of the the mountain summits,"' are made to yield households own 50 percent of the land.2 The crops. The great efforts to extend the area un- corollary of this is that the holding cultivated der cultivation brought about an increase from by a Japanese farmer does not correspond with 11 million acres in 1880 to not quite 15 mil- the amount of land owned by the same farmer. 1. Shiroshi Nasu, "Population and Food Supply 2. Hidetoshi Isobe, "Labor Conditions in Japanese in Japan," Problems of Pacific, proceedings of Second Agriculture," Bulletin of the Utsanomiya Agri- Conference Institute of Pacific Relations, Honolulu, cultural College, Section B, vol. 2, no. 1 (1937), 1927, p. 346. p. 6, table 2 (B). Japan's Agricultural Crisis 41 FARM HOUSEHOLDS ACCORDING TO SIZE OF CULTIVATED AREA (1936) AND TOTAL AREA CULTIVATED BY EACH GROUP (1933) Actual number Percentage of total Area Number of cultivated" Number of Area Arable land per family families (thousand families cultivated (acres) (thousands) acres) (percent) (percent) Less than 1.2 1,896 1,237 34.0 8.4 1.2 to 2.4 1,914 3,724 34.2 25.4 2.4 to 4.9 1,262 4,817 21.5 33.0 4.9 to 7.4 321 2,055 5.7 14.0 7.4 to 12.2 127 1,333 2.4 9.1 More than 12.2 78 1,482 1.4 10.1 Total 5,598 14,648 100.0 100.0 a. Estimated by Hidetoshi Isobe, "Labor Conditions in Japanese Agriculture," Bulletin of ihe Utianomiya Agricultural College, vol. 2, no. 1 (1937), sec. [, p. 5. Source: Government of Japan, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Statistical Abstract (1936-37), pp. 1-3. Many farmers own no land at all and many kind is an added burden shouldered by the more own very little of it (2,556,630 farm tenants. "It is all the heavier, too," a Japanese households own less than 1.2 acres each). Un- writer noted, "because of the arrangement der the circumstances they are compelled to whereby the tenant farmer pays his landlord rent land from those in whose hands it is largely so many bushels of rice per tan (0.2 of an concentrated. This has brought in its wake the acre), and this amount does not change much development of tenancy in Japan on a large irrespective of whether the crop is large or scale. At present, tenancy in Japan has reached small. In other words, the landowners are as- a point where 54 percent of the irrigated rice sured of a certain stabilized quantity of 'har- land and 40 percent of the nonirrigated land vest' regardless of the yield."4 are cultivated by tenants and part tenants. On A survey of 9,134 villages by the Japanese the whole, the two groups cultivate 48 percent, Department of Agriculture showed that in 70 or 7,200,000 acres of Japan's total arable land. percent of the cases the rental from a single Of the 5,597,000 farm households enumerated crop field constituted more than 50 percent of in 1936, almost 31 percent were composed of the crop; from a two-crop field the rent is independent farm owners, 27 percent of tenants around 60 percent of the crop. It may be noted who owned no land at all, and 42 percent of also that, whereas the landlord pays only the part tenants and part owners. land tax, the tenant has to pay a number of In the United States "tenants still move with other assessments and dues; buy his own very some freedom up the agricultural ladder,"' but expensive artificial fertilizer; and provide the in Japan tenants are in no position to do so. farm house, farm buildings, implements, and The scarcity of land and lack of alternative seed. Under the circumstances a tenant's net occupations bind the tenant to the land-re- share of the crop is considerably smaller than gardless of the high rentals. For rice land, rent the above-mentioned figures. is paid in kind, while for other land it is usu- The long-established landlord-tenant rela- ally paid in cash. The system of payment in tionship continued till about the end of World 3. Government of Japan, "Report of the Presi- 4. Magohachiro Kimura, Japan's Agrarian Prob- dent's Committee on Farm Tenancy" (February lems (Foreign Affairs Association of Japan, Decem- 1937), p. 5. ber 1937), p. 12. 42 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 War I without causing much open conflict, The silk cocoon crop is only second in im- although the tenants were never satisfied with portance to the rice crop. In fact, for a third their economic status. But the growing agri- of Japanese farmers it is the principal source cultural distress and the spread of ideas opposed of cash income. Whether the latter is large or to old-established concepts brought about a small depends entirely upon the price of silk decisive change in the attitude of the tenants in the United States, where more than 90 per- toward the landlords. Since 1917 the number cent of Japan's raw silk exports is sold. The of recorded disputes increased from 85 to nearly price is determined mainly by business condi- 6,000 annually. The causes underlying the dis- tions in the United States. This explains the putes are numerous, but the following two be- precipitous drop in price from a record high came outstanding: during the twenties, exces- of 10.6 yen per kwan (8.3 lbs.) at the close of sive rents; more recently, about 60 percent of the wartime boom in the United States to a the disputes were due to attempts on the part low of 5.7 yen a year later. Chiefly for the same of the landlords to evict the tenants from the reason, and partly on account of increased com- land. petition of rayon, the price of cocoons declined The economic welfare of the Japanese farm- from 7.5 yen in 1929 to 2.5 yen in 1934, which ers is closely bound up with two crops, rice and price was only two-thirds of the cost of pro- cocoons. The traditional practice of the rapidly duction. growing Japanese population to depend largely The burden of debt shouldered by the Japa- on rice as the main article of diet caused more nese farmers is a basic factor underlying Japan's than half of the arable land to be devoted to agricultural plight. Prior to World War I the rice cultivation. Because of the extension of total debt was estimated at less than a thousand acreage under rice and even greater rise in million dollars. Since then, the increased dis- yield per unit of land, during the last sixty parity between income and expenditure in con- years total production of rice doubled, mainly sequence of the distressed conditions in the from 155 million bushels to over 300 million countryside led to a rapidly mounting indebted- bushels. In the past decade, however, the yield ness, estimated at 6,000 million yen, or slightly has remained practically stationary. Hence the over 1,000 yen per household. The net effect suggestion that "Japan has just about reached is that "Their (farmers') excessive debts are the point where the returns on her agricultural the most important of the causes which com- efforts will begin to decrease irrespective of pel the present proprietors to dispose of their any added endeavors she may make to increase own land and reduce them to the position of her production.", proletarian tenants or wage laborers, whereas The price of rice in Japan is characterized otherwise they would remain as the sound mid- by sharp fluctuations which alternately work dle class of the farming population."" havoc with the producers and consumers. The Most of the indebtedness is carried at high fluctuations are due to a variety of factors: crop interest rates. A survey prepared by the Japa- conditions with a consequent shortage or sur- nese Department of Agriculture on the amount plus of rice, the fact that Japanese rice is con- of loans to farmers by various financial organs sumed at home almost exclusively and cannot shows that the Hypothec and Agricultural and be exported abroad at a profit, and that the con- Industrial Banks, established primarily to fa- sumed rice must be Japanese rice or that from cilitate agrarian financing, accounted only for Korea or Formosa. But whatever the causes, for 14 percent of the total farm loans. On the other nearly two decades the Japanese government hand, private banks and moneylenders ac- has been confronted with the problem of how counted for 13 percent and 56 percent, re- to eliminate sharp price fluctuations in a man- spectively.7 ner that would reconcile the interests of both producers and consumers and allay the discon- 6. Yoshinosuke Yagi, "The Problem of Farm tent engendered by it. Debt Adjustment," Kyoto University Economic Re- view (July 1937), p. 61. 7. Setsuo Uenoda, "Farm Problems in Japan Dates Back to the Early Meiji Era," Trans-Pacific 5. Shiroshi Nasu, op. cit., p. 343. (March 8, 1934). Japan's Agricultural Crisis 43 As to interest rates charged, it was officially cultural output was valued at only 2,200 million estimated that in 1932 nearly 43 percent of the yen, or less than 50 percent of the 1919-1928 debt carried a rate ranging from 7 to 10 per- average. The price disparity between manu- cent; 51 percent of the loan at a rate from 10 factured and agricultural products aggravated to 15 percent; and the remaining at a rate of the conditions of the farmers; the decline of interest above 15 percent. In reality, however, commodity prices purchased by the farmers the actual rates are considerably above the offi- was less marked; and, as in the case of the all- cial estimates. According to one observer "of important fertilizers, prices were actually rising. his (farmer'sl total loans, 57 percent have been The rise in prices proceeded at a very slow pace, advanced by private lenders at a nominal rate but it became more pronounced from 1935 on- of 12 percent and a real rate said to be between wards. The estimated 1938 value of agricultural 20 and 30 percent."8 products is some 300 million yen greater than Japanese farmers have always been sub- that of 1929. But here, too, one must note that jected to a heavy taxation burden. In feudal the rise in prices lagged considerably behind times this was epitomized in the saying: "The those of manufactured articles, thereby lowering peasant is like a sesamum seed; the more you the purchasing power of the rural community. squeeze, the more you get." In modern times Despite this adverse factor, farm prices re- the process of exacting taxes from the farmers covered sufficiently to mitigate to a certain de- has been regularized and given legal form, but gree the immediate problems given rise by the it remains true, nevertheless, that in Japan's depression, having at the same time unsolved economic scheme the farmers are still the main the fundamental difficulties which handicap "beasts of burden." For this reason "the all- Japan's agricultural economy. around progress from the feudal regime to the The question to consider now is what the modern capitalistic system was achieved at the Japanese agricultural situation means to the expense of farmers. The land tax, customs tax, farmer in terms of earning a livelihood. An consumption tax and local taxes were levied, investigation conducted in 1927, a relatively whether intentionally or otherwise, as a means prosperous year, of the income of 132 farmers of facilitating this policy."" This attitude to- who cultivated their own land, revealed the ward the farmers has persisted to this day, following: the total income of a farmer aver- despite Japan's rapid and very successful in- aged 1,350 yen as against an expenditure of dustrial development. 1,315 yen, or a surplus of 35 yen. The reliance Conditions described in the foregoing para- upon subsidiary occupations as a means of mak- graphs had been gradually undermining Japan's ing both ends meet is a basic pillar of Japan's agricultural economy for many years prior to agriculture. A survey on farm incomes for the the depression, but the full significance of the period 1913-1934 shows how widespread this fundamentally adverse factors was not revealed, practice is: "With the single exception of chiefly because of the relatively high prices of 1913, agricultural receipts fell short of meeting the two staple products-rice and silk. household expenditures, i.e., cost of living, and The first sign of a downward trend was forced the farmers to fall back upon nonagri- noted in 1926; by 1929 the price of rice had cultural income to make up the deficit."' The declined 30 percent and that of cocoons 37 proportion of the income from subsidiary occu- percent, with a similar contraction noticeable pations to the total farm income ranged from in other products. In 1929 the total value of 23 to 31 percent. agricultural output declined to 3,500 million The conclusion one is likely to draw is that, yen as against an annual average of 4,600 mil- for the majority of Japanese farmers, agriculture lion yen during the period 1919-1928. But the as such is not on a paying basis. The Bureau of real slump came in 1930 and 1931, particu- Statistics of the Japanese government was well larly during the latter year, when the agri- aware of that when it stated that "the average part-tenant as well as tenant farmer can count 8. The Times, London (July 5, 1932). 9. Magohachiro Kimura, op. cit., p. 7. 10. Hidetoshi Isobe, op. cit., p. 66. 44 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 upon a surplus only when the area of farm but its basic principles were definitely formu- under his management is larger than 4.5 acres. lated in a law enacted on March 29, 1933. The The very fact that by far the largest number of government was thereby authorized to fix each Japanese farmers till an area of less than 2.4 year a minimum and maximum price at which acres is clear evidence of the difficulty of Japa- it stood ready to buy or sell rice in order to nese agriculture as a business."" Under the maintain the market price between the two circumstances the question raised by Dr. Nasu fixed levels. The minimum was to be based on "whether or not such high population support- the cost of production and the maximum on ing power (of the land] is partly due to a the cost of living. To carry out the chief provi- sacrifice paid by peasants in the form of a low sions of the law, the government established a standard of living," '2 may be answered in the special rice fund of 800 million yen, which affirmative. could be increased to a total of 1,150 million yen. This law, which proved to be a financial The Remedies burden on the government, was modified by the Autonomous Rice Control Law of 1936. In ac- Prior to 1930 Japan's agricultural problem cordance with the provisions of the latter, the failed to attract serious attention, one of the farmers were to be organized in local and fed- important reasons being the farmers' inability eral rice control associations with a view to to express their grievances in an articulate man- storing the surplus of their rice. The Depart- ner and failure to secure the support of the inent of Agriculture was authorized to grant country's dominant political groups. But when, special bounties to cover storage expenses and among other causes, that of the farmer also was to make loans at a low rate of interest against taken up by the military, the agrarian problem, the stored rice. The surplus was to be held to quote ex-Premier Saito, immediately "caught until such time as the current market price fire." In the attempted assassination of Premier should rise above the minimum official price. Hamaguchi on November 14, 1930, resulting in Efforts to assist the farmers through price his death a few months later, rural discontent control were only partly successful, despite the played no small part. The motives behind the more than 200 million yen loss sustained by subsequent bewildering series of assassinations the Japanese government in the course of the of Japan's leading political and industrial fig- operation of the rice laws. It may be argued, tires were tinged by a combination of military- of course, that without government aid prices agrarian interests." Considering the important would have declined below prevailing levels; role of the army in the nation's affairs, par- but, from the rice producers' point of view, on ticularly after the occupation of Manchuria in many occasions prices were not sufficient to 1931, it becomes clear why, in 1932 and after, cover costs of rice production, much less a every succeeding government of Japan became margin of profit. eager to placate the farmers, The minimum price for rice now guaran- In the attempts to stabilize the price of rice, teed to the producers may not satisfy them, yet government policies were directed toward they are assured of a certain income. A similar maintaining prices at a level that would recon- situation does not exist in the case of cocoons. cile the producer-consumer differences. The Until very recently government attempts to aid origin of the policy goes back to postwar days, cocoon raisers consisted chiefly of measures tending to improve quality and reduce costs of cocoon production. In 1935 and 1936 sales of 11. Shiroshi Nasu, op. cit., p. 198. cocoons were placed under government super- 12. Ibid., p. 196. vision with the stipulation that the quality of 13. See S. D. Kennedy, "The Reactionary Move- the product offered for sale must meet with ment of 1932," Contemporary Japan (March 1933). official approval. Minister of Finance Inouye was murdered on Febru- ary 9, 1932; the managing director of the vast Mitsui On occasions, as in 1930 and 1931, farmers interests, Dan, on March 5, 1932; and Premier of engaged in sericultUre have secured loans from Japan Inoukai on May 15, 1932. the government amounting to 120 million yen. Japan's Agricultural Crisis 45 While intended as a relief measure, the govern- ernment promulgated the Farm Debt Adjust- ment utilized these loans as a means for con- ment Act. It provided for the formation of trolling the cocoon crop. But the reduction in farm associations with functions "to mediate output was ineffective as a method raising the between the creditor and debtor and make price of cocoons because of a lagging demand plans for redeeming the debts within 20 years for silk. Since prices of cocoons are governed by easing the conditions of debts through such by prices of raw silk, the Japanese government methods as extending the period of redemption, then promulgated numerous measures to in- establishing an annual installment plan, re- crease silk prices. They included such devices as ducing the rate of interest, or scaling down the loans, subsidies, government purchases of sUr- amount of the principal or of the accrued in- plus silk, and restrictions of silk output and terest."'I Within a period of five years the gov- silk sales. Yet, judging by price movements, ernment planned to extend to the associations all direct and indirect measures to raise cocoon loans at a low interest rate, amounting to 200 and silk prices failed in their aim and the pros- million yen. perity of Japanese sericulturists still depends It may be inferred that the settlement of a upon the rising curve of economic activities in relatively small portion of the farm debt was the United States rather than upon any other intended. Essentially, the act called on the factor. farmers to solve the problem by their own Aside from the attempts to aid agriculture means, as may be noted from the following: through various schemes of price stabilization, "Resources for the redemption of debts should the Japanese government concerned itself also be supplied by the surplus (farm] income . . . with the problem of lowering cost of produc- and also by disposing of property which is not tion. The main emphasis was upon cheaper needed for the efficient following of the house- supplies of artificial fertilizers. Because of the hold occupation."' Most of the Japanese farm- monopolistic character of the industry, ferti- ers, however, were heavily in debt precisely lizer prices were rigidly maintained even dur- because of a lack of surplus income. Thus the ing the years of severest depression, although chief means whereby the government hoped to prices of agricultural products were at record scale down the farm debts were reduced to low levels. The complaints of farmers against nothing else than "making a more active use of this price disparity became so vociferous that the tradition of neighbourly fellowship and on May 18, 1936, a law was enacted to correct mutual aid." the situation. The significance of the measure The basic features of the Debt Adjustment lies in the fact that the association of fertilizer Act offered no solution for the debt problem. manufacturers created by this law cannot make The hope that by virtue of the act farm in- arrangements for controlling production, set up debtedness would be scaled down considerably sales policies, or fix the price of the product did not materialize. Between August 1, 1933, without the approval of the government. and June 30, 1936, a period of nearly three Whether the Japanese farmers will be able, years, the loans extended to the associations by ultimately, to secure fertilizers at reduced prices the government amounted to only 15,440,000 remains to be seen; meanwhile, it should be yen, or 7.7 percent of the 200 million yen to noted that wholesale prices of fertilizers have be distributed in the course. of five years. been higher since the enactment of the law. On March 30, 1936, debts actually adjusted The Sino-Japanese War increased the demands amounted to 157 million yen, 26 percent of the upon the industry, thereby stimulating a fur- minimum or 15 percent of the maximum sum .ther rise in prices. It is not unlikely, of course, planned and only 2.6 percent of the total esti- that prices would have been still higher but mated farm debt. for the control measure enacted by the govern- Japan's land tenure system has been the ment. Farm relief in Japan has come to be closely identified with easing of the debt burden. As 14. Yoshinosuke Yagi, op. cit., p. 65. the crisis grew in intensity and the demand for 15. Ibid. aid became insistent, in 1933 the Japanese gov- 16. Ibid. 46 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 fundamental cause of the widespread discon- ineffectual as a measure for solving the land tent in the countryside. How to remove it has problem."" been a question agitating the Japanese govern- In addition to the outlined plans, a number ment for a number of years. Two measures have of unsuccessful attempts have been made to been adopted toward this end. One of them is enact a law that would stabilize landlord-tenant the Conciliation of Tenancy Disputes Bill en- relations. In view of Japanese tenure relations acted in 1924. It provides, first, for a more conditions, any tenancy law involves a down- simplified court procedure and, second, for arbi- ward revision of rents and an acknowledgment tration by a committee composed of a judge of the tenants' right to the land. Landlords see and several citizens. If the parties in dispute in this an infringement on their rights and they express their satisfaction with the committee's fight bitterly, and so far successfully, against decision, it becomes effective and is transferred any change. to the court for a formal approval. More than Considerable importance has been attached half of the tenancy disputes are settled in this in the past six years to the problem of settling manner. Japanese farmers in Manchuria. According to The second measure aims to do away with Japan's secretary of agriculture, "Japanese emi- tenancy as an institution by assisting the ten- gration to that vast land means, inter alia, the ants to become independent farm owners. A extension of the rural community which forms program was worked out in 1926 providing for the backbone of the Japanese race, a way out the expenditure of 468 million yen in the forth- of the difficulties arising from the intensive coming twenty-five years. This fund was not system of cultivation in Japan Proper and the adequate to carry on land purchases on a large exploitation of natural resources in that latter scale, for at prevailing prices a total of 287,000 country." 2' More concretely, Manchuria was to acres could be acquired, or only 4 percent of take the place of a safety valve, as it were, for the entire arable area rented by tenants.17 To relieving the pressure on land in Japan. speed up the process, in 1932 a more ambitious For the time being the accomplishments plan was proposed in the form of a Peasants' bear little relation to the outlined plan; nor do Proprietors' Agricultural Land Bill. It provided they augur well for the widely entertained idea for the purchase of 1,543,000 acres over a in Japan that Manchuria is becoming an im- period of thirty-five years and at a total cost of portant outlet for the Japanese surplus farm- 2.8 billion yen. The tenants were expected to ers. During the years 1932-1937, a total of 2.8 . only 2,785 families, subsidized by the govern- ep tisl sumvok m annua msalen t m inent to the extent of 1,000 yen per family, The bill provoked a great deal of criticism found their way to Manchuria. But the Japa- on the ground that it was "a device invented to nese government refused to be dismayed by enable landowners to dispose of land that was this result and in 1937 drew up a vastly more a burden to them."'8 It failed to pass and there ambitious program. The latest move calls for remains in operation only the plan inaugurated the resettlement into Manchuria of a million in 1926. In eight years, 1926-1933, nearly farm households of 5 million people, in the 120,000 tenants were assisted in the purchase of course of the following twenty years. 126,000 acres, or less than 2 percent of the The brighter side of Japan's agricultural entire volume of rented land. The conclusion of economy is in the widespread development of a Japanese student of the country's land tenure the cooperative movement. It has been spon- system is that "the present plan is thus quite sored and financially aided by the Japanese government. The savings effected through the 17. S. Kawada, "The Establishment and Mainte- reduction of the great number of intermediate nance of Peasant Farms," Kyoto University Economic Review (July 1928), p. 77. 18. Y. Yagi, "The Current Land Problem and 19. Ibid. the Establishment of Peasant Proprietorship," Kyoto 20. Yoriyasu Arima, "Japan's Agricultural Ad- University Economic Review (December 1936), p. ministration," Contemporary Japan (September 73. 1937),p. 181. Japan's Agricultural Crisis 47 merchants, for instance, is one of the factors but the benefits are not evenly distributed. The stressed in favor of the movement. Farmers more prosperous sections have profited most. represent 70 percent of the total membership Present plans for increasing the importance of of about 6 million. The main functions of the the cooperative movement in the Japanese vil- Japanese cooperative societies are confined to lage might not be without its positive effects providing credit; making sales and purchases; on the well-being of the least prosperous group. and the joint utilization of warehouses, milling But the widely held view, particularly in official establishments, farm machinery, and workshops. circles, that the very solution of Japanese agri- Almost half of the cooperatives combine all the cultural problems is closely tied up with the co- mentioned activities. operative movement is exaggerated; it can al- The movement has been playing an increas- leviate certain burdens but is in no position to ingly important role in Japan's farm economy. remove them altogether. Within the period 1920-1934, sales of rice The war waged by Japan against China is through cooperatives increased ninefold. The no boon for Japanese agriculture. The demand same is true of wheat and to a lesser extent of for farm products has been stimulated; but cocoons. In the latter year, 28 percent of all the many farmers, having no surpluses to throw on marketed rice, 27 percent of the wheat, and 12 the market, have not been able to reap the percent of the cocoons were sold through the benefits of higher prices. Moreover, it is stated cooperatives. Considerable progress has been that the movement in prices of agricultural registered by the cooperative purchasing so- products have not kept pace with the rise in cieties. Their main efforts are concentrated in prices of articles which are essential to the the purchase of fertilizers, and in 1934 they farmers; while quotations of agricultural prod- handled one-third of the total consumption. ucts have recently advanced, they are far below The cooperative credit societies extend loans those of articles commonly purchased by the for productive purposes such as purchases of rural population.22 In addition, the war de- land and agricultural machinery. Until recently prived many farms of their principal workers, about 70 percent of the loans were granted absorbed considerable numbers of livestock, without security, but on the basis of a minute and utilized so much fertilizer that the farmers examination of the moral, financial, and po- have been having difficulty in obtaining a suffi- litical standing of the borrower. Of late there cient volume for their own use. has been a reversal of this policy; the tendency Various measures have been adopted since is to grant loans only against some tangible the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War to assist form of property. The rate of interest is rather the rural sections of the country. Chief among high, ranging as it does from 8 to 12 percent them are the Farm Adjustment Law and the a year. There is little difference between these Temporary Farm Debts Liquidation Law, both rates and those charged by commercial banks, of which were enacted on April 2, 1938. but in certain cases the former are even higher. The first one is related to the creation and They generally do not relieve the rural popula- maintenance of new farm proprietors, the ad- tion from the necessity of securing loans from justment of tenant-landlord relations, and the private individuals at usurious rates. This is disposition of farms owned by farmers who especially true in the case of the poorer peas- have been conscripted into the army. Perhaps ants, because "in practice . . . credit societies the outstanding provision of the law is the are said to be made up of middle- and upper- strengthening of the position of the tenant with class membership."'2 In the light of these facts, respect to leases. The landlord cannot evict a it becomes apparent why rural indebtedness to tenant unless sufficient reason, as indicated in the cooperative credit societies comprises only the act, is given. The effectiveness or lack of from 10 to 15 percent of the total farm debt. effectiveness of the measure cannot be deter- The cooperative movement has, on the mined at this juncture; it should be stressed in whole, benefited Japan's agricultural economy, 22. Mitsubishi Economic Research Bureau, 21. Ibid., p. 123. "Monthly Circular" (June 1938), p. 8. 48 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 this connection that, on the whole, the provi- aspects hardly lend themselves to a solution. sions of the act are rather vague and that the Assuming that Japan's farming area could be landlords still have an important voice in rural expanded by 3.5 million acres27 and that it matters, particularly where their own interests would be economically advisable to do so, the are involved. total crop area would reach 18.5 million acres The Debt Liquidation Law does not extend or an average of 0.7 acres per capita. Accord- to the farming population as a whole but only ing to Japanese students of the problem, this to "bereaved families and families of wounded would be 0.5 acre short of the minimum re- soldiers living in the countryside."23 Under the quirement. Only exceedingly rapid industriali- provision of the law, the Temporary Prefectural zation or large-scale overseas migration could Committee for the Liquidation of Debts medi- achieve this minimum standard. It is reason- ates between the debtor and creditor concern- ably certain, however, that for years to come ing the reduction of the principal, rate of neither development is likely to take place and interest, or period of redemption. The funds the fundamental problem created by a great required to effect debt adjustment are to be pressure of population on a very limited land supplied by a number of government banks, area will undoubtedly continue to hamper the but in all such cases "the amount of this special country's rural progress. financing by those banks shall be within the Notwithstanding the restrictions imposed by estimated value of the real property given in the problem of "many men on little land," the mortgage."24 The liability of the government plight of the Japanese farmer can be alleviated for any losses incurred in the process of this to some extent by scaling down indebtedness, financing is limited to 120 million yen.2- This lowering interest rates, improving credit facili- latest attempt to deal with rural indebtedness ties, levying more equitable taxation, and by differs little from that of 1933; the farmers are making a serious attempt to eradicate the evils asked once again to ease the debt burden of the existing tenancy system. All these things through the employment of their own meager cannot be achieved by self-help, spiritual re- resources. This method was not successful in generation, and the oft-repeated statement that the past and it holds little promise for the pres- the farmers are the mainstay and backbone of ent or the future. the nation. Improvement of rural conditions can hardly be attained now without subsidizing the subsidizers-as the Japanese farmers may Conclusion be truly called. This is a line of action that requires large The urgent need of putting Japan's agricultural financial outlays which the farmers are mani- economy in order has been recognized now by festly in no position to supply. Moreover, the those who shape the country's development. ever-mounting expenditures in consequence of The former Minister of War, General Araki, Japan's war against China leaves little, if any- stated that "if we should succeed in solving the. agaria proble. iould be ie solv e thing, for rural reconstruction. It is likely, how- agrarian problem, it would be easier to solve the remaining serious social problems."2" But ever, that at some future date the very policy despite such expressions of grave concern, the of expansion which involves the use of the measures enacted to aid agriculture were not army may give the demand of the farmers a sufficient to accomplish the task at hand. friendlier reception. To the army, "the agri- To be sure, the task is a tremendous one and, cultural population constitutes Japan's first line under the present circumstances, some of its of defense"; consequently, that line must be strengthened. Since stop-gap measures have proved inadequate, a thorough treatment of 23. Ibid., p. 18. 24. Mitsubishi Economic Research Bureau, "Monthly Circular," Farm Debts Redemption Fund Law (September 1932), art. 3. 27. Shiroshi Nasu, "Population and Food Supply 25. Ibid., arts. 5, 6, and 8. in Japan," Problems of Pacific, proceedings of Second 26. Contemporary Japan [Collection of essays in Conference Institute of Pacific Relations (Honolulu, Russian) (Moscow, 1935), p. 73. 1927), p. 343. Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems 49 the country's number one problem may yet be- pastime of the leading political parties of the come the order of the day. Meanwhile, all one country, the farmers are still struggling against can do is to register the fact that, although talk heavy odds which they cannot overcome single- about agricultural reform has become a favorite handed. 5. Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems Although Ladejinsky was apparently called upon during the early postwar years to advise on land reform in Korea, this prewar article is the only piece of his own on that country I have been able to find. Farm tenancy plays an important role in the problems examined; so do the self-serving policies of the colonial master, Japan. Here, early on in Ladejinsky's career, he shows appreciation of the fact that economic growth does not necessarily equate with welfare. He notes "on the one hand, considerable expansion of production, and, on the other hand, the worsening of the economic conditions of the masses of Korean farmers. The benefits of enlarged acreage and augmented production seem to have eluded the very people whose efforts made them possible." One wonders, after reading, whether conditions for the poor farmer in this colonial setting were much worse than those experienced in some free Asian countries years after independence. The first and more descriptive part of the paper is omitted. This article appeared in Foreign Agriculture in February 1940. The Problem of Land Tenure acreage of arable land per farm household de- clined by 10 percent.2 Chosen, too, although to Small-scale farming a somewhat lesser extent than Japan proper, is faced with the problem of many people on THE TOTAL CROP AREA of Chosen is distributed little land-and not rich land at that. It may among 3 million households, or an average of be noted also that, whereas in Japan the pro- about 4 acres per household. This is consider- portion of the total farm income represented ably larger than the average of 2.5 acres per by income from subsidiary occupations ranged farm family in Japan, yet it is clear that in from 23 to 31 percent, in Chosen this item is Chosen, as well as in Japan, agriculture is on a of little significance because not more than 10 very small scale. The scarcity of new arable land percent of the farmers derive any income from in conjunction with a growing farm popula- nonagricultural occupations. tion is tending to reduce the individual hold- ings still further. Thus, according to a Korean student of the problem, "land is so scarce that Unequal distribution of land almost no farmer can cultivate as much land as he wishes to, and yet the acreage of arable land The problem stated above is aggravated by the per farm household is declining."' unequal distribution of the available land In the course of the years 1919-1930 the among the Korean farmers. The theoretical average of 4 acres per farm family has little relation to the amount of land actually culti- 1. Hoon K. Lee, Land Utilizauion and Rural Economy in Korea (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936), p. 109. 2. Ibid., p. 120. 50 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 vated or owned by individual farmers. Accord- ing some land from the landlords. In many ing to an official report of the Government- cases the land owned by these farmers was so General of Chosen, published in 1938, fully 63 heavily mortgaged that the ownership was a percent of all the farm households cultivate purely nominal one. At the bottom of the scale less than 2.4 acres each; and more than a third were the tenants--or 46 percent of all farm of this group cultivate less than 1.2 acres. householders-who owned no land at all and Farmers working from 2.4 to 4.9 acres made were renting an average of 3 acres per family. up 21 percent of the total; and all others culti- More recently, tenants have accounted for vate 5 acres or more. Only 457 households nearly half of the total. If the owner tenants cultivate more than 50 acres each. These figures were added to this group, then four out of suggest that the amount of land cultivated by every five Korean farmers would be tenants or the great majority of the farmers is often not semi-tenants. This situation has few counter- large enough to provide the farmer with the parts in the world. bare necessities. This becomes even more ap- At the very bottom of the agricultural ladder parent upon the examination of the question is an estimated total of 256,000 so-called fire- of land ownership in Chosen. field families who neither own nor lease any The amount of land cultivated by a farmer land. They are squatters living on tracts of often gives little indication of the amount of ground in the mountains which they have land owned by him. This is particularly true of cleared for cultivation by burning off the forest Korean farmers. A study, prepared a decade ago,: or brush. Ordinarily such land can be cultivated of the Korean farming population (2,800,000 for only a few seasons. households) by classes sheds revealing light on this subject. Thus, 104,000 landlords, who com- prised less than 4 percent of the total number of the households, owned 54.5 percent of all Tenancy in Chosen is a centuries-old institu- the arable land and two-thirds of the rice fields. tion; what is new and disturbing about it is its Next in importance was the group of owner uninterrupted growth during the past twenty- cultivators, consisting of 510,000 households- five years. This came about chiefly through the or 18 percent of the total-each one owning loss of ownership in land by the part owners somewhat less than 5 acres per family. The and part tenants and, to a smaller extent, balance of the land was distributed among the through some loss of land by the cultivator owner tenants-or 32 percent of all the farm owners (see table). Within the years 1914- families-who owned so little land that they 1938, the total number of farmers increased 11 were forced to enlarge their crop area by leas- percent but tenants increased 66 percent, or six times as rapidly. During the same period the 3. Ransford S. Miller, "The Farmers and Farm proportion of tenants to the total number of Lands of Chosen (Korea) in 1928, report by Amer- farm households increased from 35 to 53 per- ican Consul General at Keijo. cent. [See table.) This development, coupled FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN CHOSEN ACCORDING TO LANDHOLDING STATUS, 1914-1938 Part owners- Year Landlords Owner-farmers part tenants Full tenants Total 1914 46,754 569,917 1,065,705 911,261 2,593,637 1924 102,183 525,689 934,208 1,142,192 2,704,272 1930 104,004 504,009 890,291 1,334,139 2,832,443 1938 - 543,481 814,293 1,511,424 2,869,198 Sources: Data for the years 1914, 1924, and 1930 were taken from Agrarian Problem and Peasant Afove- ment (Moscow: International Agrarian Institute, 1937), vol. 4, p. 42. Data for 1938 were taken from U. Alexis Johnson, "Farming Households, Holdings, Ownership and Tenant Status in Chosen," (Keijo, Chosen, 1939). Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems 51 with the concentration of land in the hands of of 8,000 Japanese. Since the great part of the landlords and the terms under which the Japanese-owned land is in the south, it is prob- land is rented out, spells pauperization for the ably fair to conclude that in this section about great majority of Korean farmers. one-fourth of the land has passed out of Ko- A number of factors are responsible for the rean hands."6 loss of ownership in land sustained by an in- One feature of Japanese land ownership is creasing number of farmers. There is rise in that the individual holdings of the Japanese are living expenses without a corresponding in- many times larger than those of the Koreans. crease in income because of the low produc- The average size of such a holding is difficult tivity of the soil and the primitive methods of to ascertain because of lack of official data and cultivation. The fall of prices of agricultural the conflicting nature of private estimates. In products results in large deficits which lead to addition to the Japanese who are engaged in heavy indebtedness. Farmers are often in no the actual farming of the land, there are also position to discharge these debts except through numerous Japanese and Japanese corporations the sale of their land. Another factor is the who own and control what may be called in Japanese acquisition of large tracts of arable Chosen large landed estates, worked by tenants. land since the annexation of Chosen. In 1929 there were 538 such individuals or entities which owned 409,684 and controlled 65,858 acres, a total of 475,542 acres, or an Rise in land ownership by Japanese average of 884 acres per owner. Exact data concerning the amount of land The effect of Japanese infiltration on the owned by the Japanese are not available,4 and fortunes of Korean farmers has been largely the unofficial estimates vary. They are all negative. Chosen has no free land to spare; the agreed, however, that a relatively small number process of land accumulation in the hands of of Japanese have succeeded in acquiring a large the Japanese (or Korean landlords) is mainly share of the land. Official data show that at the caused by the dispossessing of native farmers end of 1927 the total number of Japanese from their land. There have been many cases of households in Chosen was 10,300, comprising replacement of entire Korean village communi- a population of 44,000. By 1936 the latter fig- ties by Japanese settlers. ure had been reduced to 35,000. An official survey of colonies made up of According to one estimate, at the end "free" or "protected" Japanese settlers revealed of 1930 the Japanese owned approximately that "many of them have replaced Korean vil- 1,500,000 acres, or "about 11 percent of the lages by driving out Korean peasant farmers. total taxable land area in Korea."' On the other In 1930 there were sixty-one such colonies hand, "various careful estimates of fair-minded where the village is entirely Japanese in the non-government Japanese and Koreans," a stu- fullest sense."'7 The Korean farmers have been dent of rural Korea wrote, "place the propor- objecting, for instance, to the organization of tion of land owned, actually or virtually, by the irrigation societies sponsored by the Govern- Japanese at anywhere from 12 to 20 percent. In ment-General of Chosen. This attitude stems some counties in the south, Japanese owner- from a variety of reasons, "but one of the most ship, based on tax records, is said to extend important factors is that as soon as an Irriga- over half of the land. Thus in one county, tion Association forms in a locality, the petty Ikson, in South Keisho Province, an investiga- Korean landowners are not able to hold their tion by a Korean landlord and educator is land which, on the contrary, falls into the hands reported to have shown 32 percent of the of large Japanese landowners and capitalists. assessed property valuation in the hands of This speedy accumulation of land necessarily 120,000 Koreans and 68 percent in the hands 6. Edmund de Schweinitz Brunner, "Rural 4. Latest official figures relate to 1927 and are Korea," report of the International Missionary Coun- incomplete. cil Jerusalem meeting, 1928, pp. 105-06. 5. Hoon K. Lee, op. cit., p. 148. 7. Hoon K. Lee, op. cit., p. 288. 52 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 puts the Korean down into the tenant or land- was seventeen percent-a condition by no less classes."' means exceptional in that part of the country.""o Both the tenant and the land he cultivates are at yet another disadvantage. In most cases Conditions of tenancy severe the tenant's lease is for one year only, the result Considering the great predominance of tenant being that the tenant turnover at the end of farming in Chosen, it may well be stated that any year is very considerable. In some provinces, the fortunes of the country's agriculture are especially in the more fertile southern regions, closely bound up with the economic status of the replacements have been estimated at about the tenants. It is pertinent, therefore, to inquire one-third of the total. Where the tenants re- into the terms upon which they rent and work main longer on the land and succeed in raising the landlords' land. larger crops, the landlords are more likely than Korean tenants pay their rents both in cash not to raise the rent accordingly. Under the and in kind. The latter, however, is the usual circumstances, the tenants cannot be expected method since 85 to 90 percent of all the tenant to make land improvements even if they had households discharge their obligations in this the means of doing so; all their efforts are bent manner. Rentals in kind fall into one of the on a maximum exploitation of the land in the following three types: payments of a certain course of their brief tenure. The onerous terms quantity of produce per unit of land, regardless under which the tenants till the land are the of the size of the crop; payment on the basis consequence of scarcity of land and lack of of he izeof he rop, pymet o th bais alternative occupations for a growing rural of the crop just harvested or on sample thresh- alteratioca ing, and payment of one-half of the crop- population. whatever its size. As to the amount of rent Try as hard as he may, the surplus of a ten- actually collected, the maximum may reach as ant's crop after fixed annual expenses are paid high as 80 percent and the minimum no lower is too small for the maintenance of his family than 20 percent of the crop. For the country until the next harvest. The lot of the Japanese as a whole, rentals constitute from 50 to 55 tenants is notoriously bad, but a Japanese au- percent of the total yield. thority wrote that "Corean [sic] tenants are The tenant's net share is considerably below poorer than Japanese tenants and their eco- that of the landlord; all expenses connected nomic condition is much worse than that of t. . . .h ladodrl xene once enants in Japan Proper. One is indeed greatly with the cultivation of the soil such as human i . amazed by the low and crude economy of those and animal labor, seed and fertilizers, as well as pagedbythe lo an C e o s taxes are supplied by the tenant. There are mn- Too agr al peoen C,rene a d stances when the landlords, too, pay taxes and The Korean tenants were never satisfied carry other charges. The Oriental Development with their lot, but until the early twenties cus- toms and traditions regulating the landlord- Company, a Japanese large-scale land enter- g t prise, and other Japanese landlords follow that tenant relations were sufficient to prevent open practice, but to compensate themselves "they . . . conflict and insure relative peace in the village. impose somewhat heavier rent upon their ten- In the past two decades, however, the life and ants."I To this must be added occasional gifts work of the Korean tenants have become in- to the landlord and extra charges and services creasingly conducive to discontent. The grow- illegal to be sure, shouldered by the tenant in ing agricultural distress has brought about a order to maintain the goodwill of the landlord. sharp change in the attitude of the tenants to- It explains vhy a careful investigation of ten- ward the landlords. The number of disputes ancy conditions in a village in the south of has increased by leaps and bounds, namely, from Korea "showed that the renter's actual net share 15 in 1920 to 6,886 in the first half of 1935.'2 8. Ibid., p. 148. 10. E. Brunner, op. cit., p. 25. 9. S. Kawada, "Tenant Systems in Japan and 11. S. Kawada, op. cit., p. 58. Corea," Kyoto University Economic Review (July 12. Tikhii Oksan, [in Russian] no. 3-4 (1937), 1926), p.70. p. 139, note 5. Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems 53 The causes underlying them were numerous but gree, but it undoubtedly has given him a the principal ones, in order of importance, were greater degree of security through a more termination of leases, excessive rents, and at- permanent employment. Judging by the official tempts to raise rents still higher. report of the Government-General of Chosen, which shows an increased number of disputes remedies presented for court settlement, one gathers that the tenants have taken advantage of the en- Faced with the growing bitterness in the rela- acted measures. According to the report, 732 tion between landlords and tenants, the Gov- cases were presented for arbitration in 1933 and ernment-General of Chosen was compelled to 1,707 in 1934. The enactment of the Agri- take official notice of the situation. It did so cultural Lands Ordinance, which became effec- by the enactment of the Chosen Tenants Arbi- tive in October 1934, led to a steep rise in the tration Ordinance (December 10, 1932) and number of disputes brought for settlement; at a later date (April 10, 1934) by the promul- they jumped to 7,444 in 1935 and to 9,370 in gation of the Organic Regulations of Chosen 1936. In the latter year only 386 cases were due Prefectural, District and Island Tenant Com- to complaints lodged by landlords; in 8,984 nittees. instances the complainants were tenants. The The two laws aimed at providing a system latter evidently found the arbitration system for the arbitration of disputes between tenants quite effective as a means of settling some of and landlords. They enable the tenant as well their differences with the landlords. as the landlord to request arbitration of a dis- Aside from these measures, the Government- pute at the local court. Refusal of one of the General of Chosen has been engaged in feeble disputants to appear before the court without attempts to cure the tenancy problem by as- proper reasons is punishable with a fine of not sisting tenants to become farmer owners. A more than 50 yen. The decision of the court is ten-year program was launched in 1932, aiming binding unless the parties concerned protest to create 2,000 farmer owners yearly. Every the decision in writing within a specified time tenant selected for this purpose receives a gov- limit. In addition, permanent regional tenant ernment loan of 1,000 yen at 4.3 percent interest committees are created with the power to hear to be repaid in twenty-five yearly installments. and arbitrate disputes over tenant rents and The effectiveness of the scheme is questionable other matters of tenancy. for two reasons. First, under the prevailing These measures help to settle disputes but price of land in Chosen, a tenant could not they do not touch the causes underlying the acquire more than 1.2 acres. The income de- conflicts and discontent. The first attempt along rived from the cultivation of so small a holding these lines was the enactment of the Chosen is not sufficient to provide the farmer with his Agricultural Lands Ordinance on April 11, meager needs at any time, let alone when the 1934. The basic features of this measure are ex- land is encumbered with debt. Second, the an- pressed in two provisions: First, the term of nual increase in the number of farmer owners lease to a tenant shall be three years instead of created under the plan would be equal to not the usual one year, and seven years in the case more than 8 percent of the yearly rise in tenant of perennial crops such as ginseng and mulz numbers. To be effective, therefore, the govern- berry; second, restrictions are placed upon the ment plan would have to be on a much greater arbitrary actions of the managers of tenant scale. lands. It provides also that agreements in which a tenant waives certain of his rights are illegal (article 6); that renewals of tenant leases shall Other Problems be for a similar term as the original leases; and that a tenant may propose a reduction or re- . mission of the rental in case of crop failure (article 16). It is evident from the above that the income The measure hardly enables the tenant to of the majority of Korean farmers is a very improve his economic status to any marked de- meager one indeed. The information on farm 54 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 income in Chosen is not complete, but data thirties had set in, the debt, according to an available show what the Korean agricultural official report, amounted to not less than situation means to the farmers in terms of 500,000,000 yen (about U.S.$144,000,000). earning a livelihood. No figures are available for the subsequent An investigation of an agricultural region years, but it is safe to assume that indebtedness of the South Keisho Province carried our in rose considerably during the years of the de- 1922 revealed that only 30 percent of the culti- pression. vator owners made a profit at the close of the The average debt per household ranges from agricultural year, while the remaining 70 per- about 170 to over 200 yen. It is considerably cent broke about even. Only 4 percent of the smaller than the 1,000 yen per farm family in part tenants and 3 percent of the full tenants Japan; however, it is by no means small when closed the year with a profit; 96 percent of the one considers that the majority of Korean former and 97 percent of the latter wound up farmers operate on what might be called a with a loss.' Two more recent surveys (1931) deficit basis. of two provinces summarized in the table below The burden of the debt is made heavier by show approximately the same results. All farm- the exceedingly high rate of interest at which ers closed the year with a deficit except the it is carried. Incomplete information covering part owners of one province who had an aver- loans totaling 54 million yen extended to its age profit of 17 yen. The average income of members by the rural credit societies shows all types of farms, however, compared with the that 14 percent of all the loans was at 15 per- average outgo of the same farms was short by cent, while 40 percent carried an interest rate 44 yen in one case and by 14 in the other. (See of over 30 percent a year. Another investiga- table.] tion revealed that the minimum rate for per- sonal loans was 7 percent and the highest 70 High indebtedness, exorbitant interest rates percent; the respective figures for mortgage credits are 7 and 40 percent. The average for The only way in which a Korean farmer can all types of loans is about 30 percent a year. cover the disparity between income and ex- The poorest section of Korean rural population penditure is by contracting a debt; hence, ap- pays the highest rates because they have little proximately 75 percent of all the farmers are or no property to offer as security. in debt. Estimates of their total indebtedness Having contracted a debt at such exorbitant vary. Before the agricultural depression of the charges, many a farmer would find it difficult to extricate himself from the debt entangle- ment even if the money were utilized for pro- 13. E. Brunner, op. cit., p. 27. ductive purposes. Actually, a great many of INCOME AND OUTGO OF FARMERS IN Two PROVINCES OF CHOSEN, 1931 (Yen) Total income according Total outgo according Profit (+) or loss (-) to investigation by to investigation by according to Agri- Chosen Agri- Chosen Agri- Chosen cultural Bureau of cultural Bureau of cultural Bureau of Society of Agriculture Society of Agriculture Society of Agriculture Class Chosen and Forestry Chosen and Forestry Chosen and Forestry Owner-farmers 679 479.5 701 507.2 -22 -27.7 Part owners 392 /8 4.6 473 468.0 -81 +16.6 Tenants 297 397.8 327 428.0 -30 -30.2 Average 456 453.9 500 467.7 -44 -13.8 Source: Hoon K. Lee, Land Utilization and Rural Economy in Korea (Chikago: University of Chicago Press, 1936), p. 272. Chosen's Agriculture and Its Problems 55 these loans are unproductive, being largely de- Selling cheap, buying dear voted to expenditures other rhan agricultural. An additional factor aggravating the agricul- For many Korean farmers indebrediness, rhere- rural situation was the price disparity between fore, spells "loss of land, discouragement, ten- m ancy, greater debts, conditions approaching serf- . . . ,,,4general commodity price level declined during dom, then utter despair and barren stolidity. "14 e The Government-General of Chosen has under- the depression but to a smaller extent than . prices of ag'ricultural products. The price of taken readjustment of farmers' debts by pro- .u price viding them with funds at low interest. "The such indispensable farm items as chemical ferti- number thus assisted," an official report stated, lizers not only failed to decline but registered "increased six fold and the amount of funds new high. Taking 1925 as a base, the index seven fold over the figures previous to this number of the price of this product was 119 in seven 1930 and 122 in 1934. movement (self-help movement inaugurated in 1 19321." The report does not reveal, however, The situation may be well summed up in the size of the special fund, the interest rates the following words: "Grains and rice are pro- duced and sold by farmers, while most of the at which loans are made, or the number Of general commodities are produced in Japanese farmers who actually benefited by it. factories and sold to farmers. Accordingly, the farmers in Korea have been in a disadvan- Falling prices tageous position. They have been paying more The fall of prices in the late twenties and e and receiving less; their conditions of life are Thefal o prcesinthelat tentes ndearly becoming harder.""~ thirties added to the heavy burdens shouldered by the Korean farmers. As a Japanese colony, Chosen reacts immediately to the economic Farm relief conditions prevailing in Japan. This is particu- The plight of the Korean farmers goes back to larly true in the matter of agricultural prices. redepression The price of Korean rice, for instance, is deter- p .y th atente andrly . . thirties served only to accentumate a notoriously mined by the Osaka market quotations. There bad situation. Prior to 1932 the Government- is this difference to be observed, however: low . . . General of Chosen took little or no notice of rice prices in Japan cause a still greater decline the farmers' difficulties, but by 1932 it became in Korean prices because of the urgency with . which the farmers must sell their crop at the evinte to enpowrat-be th some- earliest possible date. The same conditions tig(er thn ecouragnt to Prouc appl to orea cocons,larger crops in which Japan was particularly When poriesn cofagicuturn interested) had to be given to the farmers in e porder to relieve their distress. It is of interest Japan began their downward trend in 1926,. Jpces ofboegan fowrd. te iddle in this connection to note the causes, as seen in of 130.prices of alloea rin co hd official quarters, underlying the difficulties. of 1930 prices of all Korean grain crops had ThGoen nteerlfCosntad declined 20 percent and those of polished rice The Goenet-eea ofCoensae that "this miserable condition of affairs was due 28 percent; by October 1932 the respective partly to the unconscious indifference of the figures were 39 and 43 percent. The total value farmers themselves and largely to the absence of the principal agricultural products declined from709 illin ye in 928 o 49 mlin of governmental economic and educational pro- visions, as well as to the defective social organi- yen in 1931, a reduction of 30.3 percent. That zation, environment and lack of guidance."" these developments played havoc with Korean In fact, it insists throughout that the farmers, agricultural economy is generally conceded. more than any other element, must shoulder the blame for whatever ills have befallen them. 14. Setsuo Uenoda, "Korean Rural Five Year Plan for Farms Will Likely Succeed," The Trans- Pacific (May 3, 1934). 16. Hoon K. Lee, op. cit., p. 266. 15. Annual Report on Administration of Chosen 17. Annual Report on Administration of Chosen 1933-34,p. 196. 1933-34, p. 191. 56 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 This is so because, according to the official ver- investigated and guidance given toward a sion, "in more recent years the farmers, carried new practical plan of family life, material away by the rush of material civilization, have as well as mental, covering a period of five lost any idea of self reliance and have for- years. gotten the real character and true pride of farm- 3. The intent of this plan will be (a) to ing communities, in joining the ill-advised meet the usual shortage of food and to res- pursuit of 'money economy,' deluded by the cue the farmers from "spring famine," (b) current idea of capitalism, worship of all to maintain a balance between the annual powerful cash, and the supremacy of city life. cash income and disbursements, (c) to re- Thus they have urged on their impoverish- adjust and repay the harrowing debts.2' ment."Bs These views played a decisive role in the But how could all this be accomplished in the remedial measures adopted by the Korean au- light of the meager resources of the Korean thorities. Assistance through work relief proj- farmers? The answer was that "a government ects was considered, and expenditures for subsidy should be granted dependent on the public works programs increased from 7 mil- progress of the mental awakening of the farm- lion yen in 1931-32 to 13 million yen in ers an2 the development of their new life 1936-37. The budget figure for 1937-38 plans." shows a Thighe ofdg32millionren declining According to the same official source, the shows a high nf 32 million yen, declining actual working of the self-help plan brought to 19 1million yen in 1938-39- The exact SumFY considerable benefits to the farmers. Examples spent in the past two years has not been indi- csdbl wbn to theres Examles cated. But in the main the emphasis was upon were cited showing that, whereas, at the begin- a cure through the farmers' own efforts. "To ning of 1933 out of 55,522 families selected rescue the rural villages definitely," the official from 1,988 villages, 31,581 suffered from food report continues, "and to see the farmers shortage; at the end of the year the number of emerge with vigorous energy there remains the such families was reduced by 6,939. Before the sole means-the Self-Help Movement-by movement came into being, 43,329 out of the which the farmers are urged to plan and work 55,522 families averaged a debt of 115 yen per out their own salvation. Believing this an in- farm, but in the course of the year they were fallible and popular plan for the regeneration able to reduce the individual debt by 25 yen. of Chosen, the Government-General, since Also, the rate of tax collection increased by 2 1932, has been encouraging and guiding the percent, and "the Savings deposited in the Local farmers in its practice."'a Credit Associations increased by 20 percent in An attempt to clarify the nature of this very Shares anti by 17 percent in Cash, while the vague programmatic statement was made in arrears of payments decreased by 20 percent.. 1933 when the Government-General issued in- The Postal Savings increased by 10 percent in structions to the provincial officers "for the number of depositors and by 22 percent in practical guidance and operation of the 'Self- amount. Help' Plan."" From these one learns that: The actual increase both in savings and in deposits is not indicated. But whatever the size 1. Guidance should stress the mental awak- of the sum or the number of families relieved ening and self reliance of the farmers, in from the usual "spring famine," it is not clear preference to urging them to material prog- to what extent the policy of self-help was re- ress. . . . sponsible for these results. Even the so-called 2. Every year in each "Yu" and "Men" practical, detailed instructions on how to pro- [small administrative units] one or more more the self-help movement are only vague villages should be selected in which the liv- generalizations against which results can hardly ing conditions of each family should be be checked. The better prices that prevailed in 18. lbid., pp. 191-92. 21. Ibid. 19. Ibid., p. 193. 22. Ibid. 20. Ibid., p. 194. 23. Ibid., p. 195. Chosen's AgricultIre and Its Problems 57 1933 (and in the subsequent years) as com- to have eluded the very people whose efforts pared with those of the immediately preceding made them possible. years might have been the direct cause of cer- The salient features of the seemingly para- tain improvements. doxical situation in Chosen are as follows: A Furthermore, the official claims deserve care- cash income ranging from 50 to 100 yen per ful scrutiny because of the tendency to see family; an insufficient food supply that spells beneficial results where few are in evidence. hunger for considerable groups of farmers, From the official point of view, for instance, a coincidental with large exports of food products cause for gratification is that "the consumption to Japan; indebtedness at usurious rates by of Rubber Shoes decreased by 5.9 percent.'2 which four-fifths of the farmers are harassed; Decreased consumption of this type of com- and ever-increasing decline in land ownership modity does not mean that the Korean farmers and consequent swelling of the ranks of ten- shifted to better quality leather shoes; on the ants. All this was well epitomized by a Japa- contrary, it indicates a shift to the poorest nese writer who stated that "the lot of the quality shoes-straw shoes produced by the Korean farmer is as miserable as ever it was, farmers themselves. This is characteristic of a a fact that explains why the Government- type of self-sufficiency that feeds on a lower General, despite all its efforts on behalf of rather than a higher standard of living. Korea, is not unqualifiedly popular."2" The kind of assistance exemplified by the In Chosen as well as in a number of other self-help movement proceeds from the assump- Oriental countries, the inherent problem of a tion that, basically, there is little the matter growing population pressing upon a limited with Chosen's agriculture. "The future of these arable acreage is responsible in a large measure communities," we are assured, "should not be for many of the difficulties mentioned above. regarded with pessimism. Agriculture is fa- They are accentuated, however, by Japanese voured with good soil, good limate, and abun- economic policies relating to Chosen. Japan dant labour. With the study of land productivity succeeded in turning Chosen into an ample and the adaptation of farming methods, the source of raw materials, primarily foodstuffs, yield can readily be doubled."2 This statement for which the former was greatly in need. In is charged with an undue degree of optimism. return, Japan supplied Chosen with manu- The plentiful supply of labor is synonymous factured products. This is a familiar colonial with a surplus farm population, finding no out- policy motivated mainly by the specific needs let for profitable employment; the soil is con- of the "mother country," in this case Japan, sidered inferior to that of Japan, the land re- rather than by those of the colony. serve fit for cultivation is small indeed, and The more recent very ambitious cotton pro- there is no evidence that the yield could duction plan is yet another illustration of this "readily be doubled." policy. It is quite possible that the cotton pro- grain will benefit the farmers, but it must be noted that the expansion of acreage under cot- ton springs from Japan's desire to lessen the Conclusion dependence of its textile industry upon foreign cotton. If this development should bring any Reviewing Chosen's agricultural development advantage to the Korean farmers, it will be since the country's occupation by Japan, one purely incidental to the main aim. observes, on the one hand, considerable expan- In the strenuous efforts made by the Govern- sion of production and, on the other hand, the ment-General of Chosen to increase agricultural worsening of the economic conditions of the output, the imiediate problems affecting the masses of Korean farmers. The benefits of en- lives of the farmiers were lost sight of until it larged acreage and augmented production seem became evident "to all those interested that it 26. Yoichi Muto, "New Economic Trends in 24. Ibid. Korea," Contemporary Japan (September 1936), 25. Ibid., p. 192. p. 210. 58 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 is of vital necessity to retrieve the rural com- of Korean farmers. Even the Japanese farmers, munities from entire collapse."-, The measures who have the qualities that the Koreans sup- to combat this situation were not commensurate posedly lack, failed to escape a goodly share of with its gravity. The attempts to scale down the ailments besetting the Korean farmers. The indebtedness, to arrest the growth in the num- farmers of Japan were in no position to im- ber of landless farmers, to prevent the concen- prove their economic status without consider- tration of land in fewer hands, and to create a able financial aid from the state; to a greater strong group of owner cultivators were quite degree the same holds true of the Korean ineffective. farmers. These are admittedly difficult problems to To give the land back to the farmers or to solve, but their solution is not brought nearer arrest the process of growing tenancy, the gov- when, as Korean authorities maintain, the real ernment would have to render them financial cure lies in spiritual regeneration, self-reliance, assistance on a large scale, as well as introduce mental awakening, and the like. At best such basic remedial legislation. Such measures, to- measures could alleviate but slightly the plight gether with a greater emphasis on industrializa- tion of the country, toward which a substantial beginning has already been made, might help 27. Annual Report on Administration of Chosen to reduce considerably the distress in the Ko- 1933-34,p. 192. rean countryside. 6. Agriculture of the Netherlands Indies This is a quite exhaustive-some 63 printed pages long-and interesting study of a benevolent colonialism, untypically protective of native-owned, small-scale farms and production. It is far too long for inclusion here in full, but Ladejinsky's own short summary and conclusions are presented. They convey the flavor of the piece and suggest the substantial background knowledge Ladejinsky brought with him when he made three work visits to Indonesia from 1961 to 1964. It may be noted that this study was published within months after the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Although the United States was not to become directly involved until more than a year later, this and other agricultural studies of the period-of British Malaya, Manchuria, Thailand, Australia, the South Pacific Islands, the food supply in Asia-were probably of considerable interest to the U.S. State and Defense Departments in their own strategic studies and planning. This article appeared in Foreign Agriculture in September 1940. SOME OUTSTANDING FEATURES of the eco- nish 90 percent of the total world supply of nomic development of the Netherlands Indies cinchona, 30 percent of pepper, and 75 percent may be recapitulated here. The wide choice of of kapok; they also supply a third of the world's climate and rich volcanic soil permit the culti- rubber, a third of copra, nearly 20 percent of vation not only of home food crops but also of tea, 25 percent of palm oil, and more than 20 a great variety of important tropical industrial percent of sisal. In addition, they furnish size- products. The place of the Netherlands Indies able quantities of sugar, coffee, and numerous among other producers of such commodities is other commodities. The islands are also im- important: in the case of three products it en- portant sources of oil and tin. joys almost a monopoly. Thus the islands fur- The agricultural economy of the islands is Agriculture of the Netherlands Indies 59 characterized by its dual character of large in East India."' Since then Dutch investment plantations operated by Europeans and small 1- has almost trebled, and with it has grown the or 2-acre native farms. The plantations repre- economic dependence upon the Indies of nearly sent large capital investments and thorough every section of the population of the Nether- utilization of agricultural science. These two lands. The number of Dutch whose economic elements, together with the fertile soil, abundant welfare is directly or indirectly dependent on labor supply, and growing demand for tropi- the colonies has been variously estimated at cal products, have enabled the enterprising from 400,000 to more than four times that Dutch to turn the Netherlands Indies into a number.2 The yearly profits from the colony country of typical plantation agriculture. have been estimated at about U.S.$160 million.' Unlike many other Asiatic countries, the On the whole it is clear that the East Indies land reserves of the Netherlands Indies are not place the Netherlands among the principal so- exhausted; however, a sharp distinction in this called "have" powers, as contrasted with the connection must be drawn between Java and "have not" powers. Normally-that is, prior to the outer provinces. Java is one of the most the 1930s-such a position was beneficial to densely populated countries in the world, and all concerned. Since the cost of production in the possibilities of increasing the crop acreage the Netherlands Indies is relatively low, their of the island are practically at an end. Expan- exports have always been available at fair sion of output can come only from increase in prices and profits have been distributed in vary- yield; it is generally agreed that in this respect ing degrees among the mother country, the a great deal may be accomplished. colony itself, and the consumers. But in a period The outer provinces, on the other hand, are of a rising European and Asiatic totalitarianism, sparsely populated and the land under cultiva- the very existence of a rich but poorly armed tion represents only a fraction of that available. colonial power such as the Netherlands be- To be sure, much of the soil is less fertile than comes gravely endangered. Their militarily that of Java, and irrigation is a prerequisite for strong neighbors, who depend on imports of the growing of food crops; but with consider- the commodities with which the Netherlands able investment of capital, large tracts of land Indies is so richly endowed, are not content can be cleared and cultivated. This is actually with access to the market on equal terms with being effected at the present, though on a small other countries. scale, through the government-sponsored and Having noted the importance of the Nether- -directed colonization of southern Sumatra, lands Indies to the Dutch in terms of material Borneo, and Celebes, where large tracts of land well-being, the question may be considered of the effects of Dutch rule on the economic wel- are placed at the disposal of settlers from the fae offthesnativs. The ow tandardnof l most densely populated sections of central Java. of the nativ e lo otava ha lready Cooilpsesosaeotnrfre oa of the native population of Java has already Colonial possessions are often referred to as been discussed. It is questionable, however, the "white man's burden": for the Netherlands, whether the responsibility rests solely with the however, this burden has not been difficult to Dutch. Less emphasis on the colony as an ex- carry. In the process it has become one of the porter of raw products and an importer of world's leading colonial powers-not so much finished goods, or a greater measure of indus- because 8.5 million Dutch rule a colonial em- trialization, would have added to the income pire of 65 million persons but because the of the natives: hence, the present policy of Netherlands Indies, largely through develop- industrialization as a means of counteracting ment of its economic resources by the Dutch, some of the ill effects of the economic crisis. has become one of the world's richest and best- paying colonial possessions. 1. Amry Vandenbosch, The Dutch East Indies At the turn of the century when Dutch in- (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wm. B. Eardmans, 1933), vestments were estimated at less than a million p. 209, quoting Van Deventer. id2 noted that "the welfare of the . Ibid., and Arthur S. Keller, "Netherlands guiers, it was India as a Paying Proposition," Far Eastern Survey propertied classes in the Netherlands is very (January 17, 1940). closely related to the retention of our colonies 3. Amry Vandenbosch, op. cit., p. 209. 60 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 The failure to act in this direction before the individual holdings. When, as in the case of depression must be laid to the government, the sugar and tobacco plantations, the land is At the same time the importance of indus- rented from the natives, they retain the use of trialization of the Netherlands Indies must not it for cultivation of food crops and receive a be exaggerated. Considering the natural re- fair rental set by the government. Finally, the sources of the Archipelago, it may be stated absence of the tenancy system in the islands that industrialization could hardly affect its is a phenomenon for which Dutch colonial land agricultural character. The natives of Java and, legislation is largely responsible. for that matter, of the other islands live by The economic development of the Nether- agriculture and are likely to continue to do so. lands Indies is largely synonymous with the The standard of living of the Javanese would increasing volume of export crops in which be higher but for the fact that the island pre- native agriculture has been playing an increas- sents a problem of extremely dense population. ingly important part. The Dutch colonial gov- This, perhaps, is at the root of the difficulty. ernment directly and the plantations indirectly On those islands in which this condition does have stimulated the cultivation of export crops not prevail, as in the outer provinces, the na- by natives. The phenomenally rapid expansion tives have facilities for bettering their economic of native rubber production to a point where status. it exceeds that of the plantations illustrates this One of the cardinal policies of the Dutch point. While in the 1890s the natives con- colonial government has been that the native tributed 10 percent of the total volume of ex- food supply must be as ample as possible. Be- port crops, this percentage has since risen to cause of the ever-increasing pressure on the over 40 percent. It may be stated, then, that land, per capita consumption of rice has de- the natives, particularly of the outer provinces, clined over several years by 15 percent. Yet are not only taking an active part and profiting even in the worst years of depression the na- in the economic development of the islands but tives knew nothing of hunger. One cannot but may before long outstrip the plantations as a contrast the situation with that in Chosen, un- source of exports of tropical commodities. der the Japanese, where huge numbers of farm- Before the depression of the early 1930s ex- ers are subject to "spring hunger" year after ports from the Netherlands were valued at over year. U.S. $600 million; at the height of the crisis The outstanding achievement of the Dutch they declined to approximately one-third of colonial administration is that it has prevented that sum. The once-flourishing plantation in- the natives from bartering away their land. dustry was hard hit, since foreign markets could Hardly any other colonial power has insisted no longer absorb the output of the Netherlands that this, the natives' only capital, must be pre- Indies at prices insuring the producers a margin served for them; hardly any other colonial of profit. The laissez-faire system of free trade and uncontrolled private business enterprise power has succeeded so well in carrying out this principle. Considering the eagerness with gave way to an extensively regulated capitalistic thih prcipean Cnsteringes agenes wid economy. With decreased dependence on for- which European entrepreneurs and Chinese and eign markets, greater attention had to be devoted Arabian moneylenders wished to obtain fertile to the internal market and the development of native land, the Dutch achievement in this me- industries based on domestic consumption. In spect cannot be overestimated, a word, the new policy has been one of making It may be argued that the European planta- the islands into a more self-sufficient economic tions occupy land that might have been culti- entity. For the time being, this has helped to vated by the natives; however, the acreage of prevent a collapse of the economic structure state domain rented out to the plantations is of the Netherlands Indies, but it may be ques- too small, especially in Java, to make any ap- tioned whether it could restore the islands to preciable difference in the size of the native their former prosperous state. Agricultural Policies of British Malaya 61 7. Agricultural Policies of British Malaya This is a brief and even-handed, if somewhat sketchy, treatment of agricultural policies in Malaya under the British colonial administration. It touches on policies regarding land tenure and use, the balance between plantation and small-scale native agriculture, labor and immigration, research, and cooperative credit. This article appeared in Foreign Agriculture in April 1941. Land Tenure behalf. Thus "The Resident is empowered to alienate land, and, with the approval of the THE PRINCIPLE THAT ALL LAND in British Chief Secretary, to impose special conditions. Malaya is owned by the sultans of the various The Resident may delegate certain defined states has been carried over, with little change, powers to Collectors of Land Revenue in his from ancient times. Even in the pre-British era, state in connection with the alienation and however, a farmer could acquire permanent occupation of State land."2 The function is a tenure of the land he cleared and tilled along significant one when it is considered how eager with the right to alienate and bequeath it, the British administration was to expand the though his tenure was dependent on uninter- rubber acreage. rupted cultivation, payment to the sultan of part The land tenure system of British Malaya of the crop, and the contribution of labor. For, is now regulated in accordance with the Land in a sparsely populated country where clearing Code of 1926. This code was enacted for the the jungle was a difficult task, "Whatever form Federated Malay States, but with minor modi- the subordination of the people to the chief fications its provisions apply throughout the might take in other matters, a certain security country. All agricultural land is divided into in land was essential if the labour of clearing country land exceeding 10 acres and country was to be undertaken and the people were to land of 10 acres or less in order to draw a line be induced to cultivate at all."' of demarcation between the small-scale native The coming of the British and later the de- agriculture and the large-scale plantation agri- mand for land caused by the rapid development culture. of the rubber industry necessitated a revision Title to lots of not more than 10 acres can of the land tenure system. Now, as in the past, be established through entry in the parish the cultivators are assured of permanent tenure registry or through grant or lease. The first in addition to heritable, transferable rights sub- manner is the one under which small holders ject to some conditions. But forced labor ser- usually establish title to the land. Title to land vices have been abolished, and crop sharing has exceeding 10 acres may be acquired only been replaced by cash rental. All public land in through grant or lease. Parish registry conveys Malaya is still the property of the ruler, but a absolute title in perpetuity, subject, however, new and very important element has been in- not only to payment of rentals but also to a troduced: the land is disposed of not directly number of conditions laid down by the land by the ruler but by the British Resident in his code and the grant itself. The lease, usually for ninety-nine years, sets forth the terms decided upon in each case by British authorities. Title 1. H. Martin Laske, "Studies in Tropical Land Tenure," Tropical Agriculture (October 1932), p. 320. 2. Handbook to British Malaya (1935), p. 105. 62 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 under the land code conveys surface rights, the the acreage of which now exceeds that owned state retaining all rights in minerals below the by the natives. There is no certainty that the surface. expansion of the estates has not encroached The first charge on all land, irrespective of upon the natives' only capital, the land. It is title, is an annual quit rent; the amount paid true that the relative scarcity of population in ranges from 60 cents to $4.00, depending on Malaya has not yet created a serious land short- the quality of the land. Rents are subject to age as in Java. It would seem, however, that a periodic revisions at intervals of not less than land problem does exist. As far back as 1913 thirty years. In addition, a special per-acre pay- the Federated Malay States passed the Malay ment must be made when the land is acquired. Reservation Act, whereby the federation was In the case of small holders, failure to pay rent empowered to designate any land as a Malay or cultivate the land ". . . in a proper manner reservation. Such land cannot be sold to a according to the methods of good husbandry" non-Malay. Similar legislation has been enacted or to commence cultivation within a specified in more recent years. Nevertheless, all those period is cause of forfeiture of part or all of willing to engage in large-scale agriculture in the land. Similar conditions apply to the hold- British Malaya have had no difficulty in acquir- ings exceeding 10 acres. In this case failure to ing all the land they have desired. commence cultivation within twelve months of the date upon which title has been established or to cultivate a quarter of the land during the Labor first five years, half within ten years, and the remainder in the course of the subsequent three The development of plantation agriculture in years constitutes default. Furthermore, the ad- British Malaya has depended on foreign labor. ministration has a right to specify the crops It has been almost impossible to lure the Malays that may or may not be grown on a given type from their own easy-going agricultural pursuits of land. into the more arduous tasks of daily wage earn- The British land policy in Malaya stems ers on the estates; hence the reliance on im- from the desire to "open" and develop the ported labor from India and China and, to a country as rapidly as possible. The chief fea- much smaller extent, from Java. The bulk of tures of the policy are not considered burden- the labor force is composed of Indians. In 1938, some, particularly as they affect the plantation out of 296,000 workers employed on the rub- industry. The provisions that certain areas must ber plantations, the Indians constituted 70 per- be cultivated within a given time were estab- cent, the Chinese 21 percent, the Malayans 5.5 lished in order to prevent land speculation. The percent, and the Japanese and others the re- net result is that it is very difficult to hold land maining 3.5 percent of the entire labor force. and not to cultivate it. In general the provisions Before the depression of the 1930s, the gov- laid down before and after the enactment of ernment of British Malaya actively encouraged the Land Code of 1926 have been liberally the importation of labor. Many Indians were interpreted. For all practical purposes the grants recruited for work on the plantations and as- as well as the leases are as good as outright sisted to emigrate to Malaya, as distinguished sales. The transfer of rights from one person from those who paid their own expenses. The to another is also relatively simple. Thus the process was closely supervised by the Indian plantation industry is assured of permanence Immigration Committee, set up to regulate the and thereby made attractive to investors. flow of labor in a manner defined by the Ma- The British land policy in Malaya aimed not layan government. Part of the function of this only to encourage the development of the body was to manage the Indian Immigration plantation industry but also to evolve a fair bal- Fund, built up from compulsory assessments on ance between the plantation and the small-scale the employers of Indian labor to cover trans- native agriculture. This meant that the land re- portation expenses of the emigrants from their quirements of the native population were to be homes to the place of employment and for satisfied. The administration has carried out repatriation to India as well as subsistence and its intentions with respect to the plantations, medical attention for those en route to Malaya. Agricultural Policies of British Malaya 63 In 1930, in consequence of the severe economic are the houses, medical attention, and the crisis, Malayan authorities suspended all emi- schools. On the whole, however, considerable gration assistance. The system was reestablished progress is being made in these fields through- in 1934, but the number to be assisted was out the plantation industry, notably in the greatly restricted. On the other hand, no restric- school system. The labor laws of Malaya em- tions were placed on those who paid their own power the Controller of Labor to order the passage. establishment of a school on plantations where Living and working conditions in Malaya ten or more children between the ages of 7 and are still poor but labor is subject to a consider- 14 live. In 1938 the total number of schools on able degree of protective legislation which the plantations was 754 as compared with 565 covers general working conditions, wages, hous- in 1935. ing, and health. Pressure by the government of A feature that has assumed much impor- India has been partly responsible for the enact- tance in the past decade is the allotment of ment of such legislation. land for the plantation labor force. At an early Labor on the plantations in British Malaya stage of plantation development one-sixteenth is free and does not operate under an indenture of an acre, to be utilized as a garden plot, was system. The enforcement of labor contracts set aside by each plantation for workers with through imprisonment was abolished for In- families. Before the slump of the 1930s, there dian labor in 1910 and for other labor not long was little economic pressure to make use of thereafter. Indebtedness to the employer is not such facilities. Furthermore, "To many planters, a cause for compelling workers to continue in and to nearly all visiting agents, a green shoot employment; a worker is not liable to criminal appearing above the soil which was not a rub- prosecution for leaving his job without notice; ber seedling was likely to be lallang (wild finally, every worker is authorized to leave em- grass) and therefore something to be destroyed ployment on a month's notice without sub- rather than encouraged.": This attitude on the jecting himself to civil action. part of the planters and agricultural laborers One of the functions of the Indian Immi- came to an end with the depression of 1929- gration Committee is to prescribe the standard 1933. Many workers employed for years on the rates of wages for practically all forms of work plantations refused to return to India despite in which Indian immigrants are employed. But the prevailing low wages and sometimes were since the rubber industry chiefly employs such given considerably larger areas for food crops labor, wages there set the standard for all other than were specified by law. industries. Wage rates are fixed by law in key To the Malayan administration, the increased areas, and experience has shown that these in use of garden plots remains a means of sup- turn effectively determine the wages in other plementing the earnings of the plantation districts. Accessibility of labor and sanitary laborers, but to the agent of the government conditions are the decisive factors in fixing the of India, who is spokesman for Indian labor in differences between the wages paid, not merely Malaya, it is an opening wedge for permanent in different parts of the country but between settlement on the land and a means of enabling different estates within the same district. The the immigrant workers to become full-fledged actual wage rates for men during 1936-1938 citizens of Malaya. "It is the settlers them- ranged from 23 to 29 cents per day and for selves," he writes, "who by their own exertions women from 18 to 23 cents. The legal maxi- open and develop the land, and it must be mum number of hours per day is nine, but a clearly understood that they have as permanent rubber tapper usually works not more than five cleal un th at the have as an to six hours, and the number of working days asaei h efr ftecutya n mine or estate owner. Their title, therefore, per month guaranteed by the labor statutes is ' twentyfour.must be permanent and unassailable, and in twenty-four. In addition to wages, plantation labor is provided with housing, medical, and educa- 3. Government of Malaya, Annual Report of the tional facilities. The larger the plantation, par- Labour Department for the Year 1938 (Kuala ticularly if it is owned by Europeans, the better Lumpur, 1939), p. 49. 64 THE WASHINGTON YEARS, 1935-1945 any future political development which may crop improvement, through bud grafting from take place they must receive recognition as high-yielding trees, and soil management. The permanent independent inhabitants of Malay."4 institute, amply financed by a special export tax on rubber, concerned itself with these prob- lems as they presented themselves on large- as Agricultural Science well as small-scale rubber holdings. In fact, the institute dealt with all scientific problems in The chief causes underlying the decline in the relation to production, including investigations crops that formerly dominated Malayan agri- on soils, improvement in planting material, culture were plant diseases and poor methods rapping systems, diseases and pests, the pro- of cultivation. Mindful of these experiences, duction of various types of raw rubber suitable the British administration realized that suc- for manufacturing purposes, and the marketing cessful agricultural development in Malaya of latex of good quality. All of this is expected . . - to bring about ". . . lower costs of production must go hand in hand with thorough applica- g. . . tion of sound techniques. The establishment of in the industry and at the same .ime should the Botanic Gardens in Singapore and in Pe- enable the industry to maintain itself in the . face of increasing competition from outside nang was the first step in that direction. They and o safeaits future fromotsd were long the main sources for dissemination of technical agricultural knowledge. Their work in introducing rubber growing is especially noteworthy. When the Department of Agri- Cooperatives culture was created in 1905, research was ex- tended into every aspect of plant and soil. The efforts of the British administration were Numerous experiment stations were opened, concentrated on the promotion of the planta- some of them dealing with specific crops such tion industry, but certain deplorable conditions as rice. The investigatory work of the experi- of native agriculture could not be overlooked. ment stations in Malaya has been supplemented Farm indebtedness was one of those conditions. by demonstration work. Agricultural education Although official data do not reveal how large has also been provided by a school of agri- the aggregate debt burden was, ". . . measures culture, established in 1931, which devotes its were needed to enable the small holder to free attention particularly to the training of per- himself from the immense load of debt with sonnel to serve the needs of native agriculture. which he is normally overwhelmed."O The The chief emphasis of the scientific work farmers were deeply involved with money- was on the development of rubber. From the lenders who not only charged exorbitant in- outset, all efforts were directed toward the terest rates but also purchased their crops at spread of scientific cultivation and the elimina- prices much below those prevailing on the tion of haphazard and destructive methods market. such as had been practiced in the Amazon In order to alleviate the natives' condition, a Valley. For some time the work in this field Cooperative Societies Department was estab- was carried on by the department of agri- lished in 1921. The chief objectives of the culture and four other organizations, but it be- institution were two: to improve agricultural came increasingly evident that the problems of finances through short-, medium-, and long- the rubber industry could be dealt with better term credits and to improve marketing of agri- by one institution devoted entirely to their cultural products. However, these attempts to solution. As a result, the Rubber Research In- free the farmers from the moneylenders have stitute of Malaya was organized in 1926. failed. The government has provided the credit The two technical problems of fundamental importance to the industry at that time were 5. G. Bryce, "Malaya Rubber Institute," Tropical Agriculture (September 1928), p. 215. 4. "Immigrant Labour in British Malaya," Inter- 6. D. H. Grist, An Outline of Malayan Agri- national Labour Review (July 1940), p. 73. culture (Kuala Lumpur, 1936), p. 33. Agricultural Policies of British Malaya 65 cooperatives with constitutions but not with Conclusion initial funds to carry on their work. The chief emphasis has been on teaching the farmers the In summary it may be stated that the British virtues of thrift in the belief that the savings policy of land administration in Malaya was thus accumulated will enable them to establish the key to the rapid development of large-scale their own credit institutions. The only difficulty agriculture by Europeans and to a lesser extent has been that the economy of the Malay an Chinese. The government, however, was not farmer hardly permits surpluses. He has been a forcd, herfore toconinu to elyon l~e altogether oblivious to the land requirements forced, therefore, to continue to rely on the o h aie.Tog h rts eents Indian and Chinese pawnbrokers and money- of the natives. Though the British were not so lenders as his chief source of credit, whether determined to preserve the land for the natives short- or long-term. The failure of the coopera- as were the Dutch in the Netherlands Indies, tive credit scheme is well-illustrated by the fact an important protection measure was brought that in 1934 the Federated Malay States and about by the establishment of the Malaya reser- Straits Settlements had a total of $50,886. Loans vations, where land may be sold only to Malays. granted during the year by these bodies There is evidence that the reservations were amounted to but $3,956, and their reserve aimed chiefly against encroachment by the funds totaled $19,233.7 Chinese rather than by the British land inter- Entirely different is the treatment accorded ests. The Malaya Reservations Committee noted the large planters. They are in a more favorable in its unpublished report of 1931: position because they are considered the most dynamic factor in the country's agriculture. We do not hold that the protection of a For this reason "The large private estate can backward peasantry is the sole or the chief usually obtain long-term credit . . . at a moder- object of the policy of preservation. The ate rate of interest. The Federated Malay States policy is territorial, and whatever the com- Government has provided long-term credit . . . petitive capacity of the Malay may be he in the shape of a revolving fund of $4,000,000 called the 'Planter's Loans Fund' which is avail- .os aerace omte th te farmoe able for such purposes as may directly assist in puo peoles of te othraces (Chines the general development of the Federated and Indians) who are attracted to Malaya. Malay States."' It is a question of numbers. If the future of Nor have the government efforts to improve the Malay is to be assured, he must have room the lot of the natives by cooperative marketing for expansion, and that requires land to be met with success. Attempts have been made to reserved.' organize the native rubber growers into co- operative groups for joint sales of the product, Whatever the underlying cause, however, the thus eliminating the Chinese middleman; but reservation's regulations, if properly enforced, "The great fall in the price of rubber brought are a guarantee that not all of the land of Ma- these societies to a stop, and at the end of 1934 laya will be bartered away to the British or all such societies were dormant or were under Chinese; at least part of the reserves of the liquidation."' states will pass into the hands of the natives. 7. Handbook to British Malaya, p. 153. 8. D. H. Grist, op. cit., p. 40. 10. Rupert Emerson, Malaysia: A Study in Direct 9. Ibid., p. 153. and Indirect Rule (New York, 1937), p. 479. II. THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 CALTHOUGH THE NINE YEARS from December 1945 through 1954 were three times interrupted by tours of duty with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, for a total of some thirty months, it seems appropriate to describe the thirty-three papers Ladejinsky produced during this period under the heading "The Tokyo Years."* Ladejinsky returned to Washington in January 1947, a few months after the Japanese land reform legislation was enacted. He was recalled to Tokyo in November of that year at a time when the land transfer program was moving into high gear; he remained there until September 1948, by which time a substantial part of the transfer program had been completed. His next return to Washington lasted until August 1949 when he was detailed to assist the Joint (U.S. and China) Commission on Rural Reconstruction on the mainland of China (Szechwan) and Taiwan. His final return to Washington in February 1950 lasted only until September. In October 1950 he was posted to Tokyo once more, this time as agricultural attach6. The pattern of Ladejinsky's papers from 1946 through 1954 reflects these changing assignments. In the first group are papers which deal with the basis for the land reform in Japan, its promise, and its early results. Next come papers relating to rent control and land reform in Taiwan and mainland China. After his return to Tokyo as agricultural attach6, additional papers and despatches review the Japanese land reform in its broader social and political as well as economic effects and evaluate the U.S. contribution to it. But the many demands for Ladejinsky's advisory assistance in other countries during this attach6 period are reflected in another visit to Taiwan and the resulting 1951 paper, in two papers emanating from his invited participation in the Ford Foundation Conference on Land Tenure in New York late in 1952, and in four papers on land reform which resulted from "on loan" ad hoc work in India in 1952 and 1954. Between the China-Taiwan papers and the second group of Japanese papers come two popular articles assessing the political problem and prospect for Asia as a whole. The last piece of writing produced during these years is a letter to the Ford Foundation, evidently part of a continuing contact with friends there which goes back at least as far as his participation in the 1952 conference, which contributes * See the Chronological Bibliography. 67 68 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 importantly to a knowledge of Ladejinsky's broad views on human welfare, development, and external assistance in that process. Of the total of thirty-three papers produced during these "Tokyo Years," eighteen dealt with Japan, six with China-Taiwan, four with India, two each with land tenure and the outlook for Asia, and one with what may broadly be called human welfare. Of these, seventeen are presented here-three of the Japanese pieces, three also of the China-Taivan pieces, and all of the others. All but three of the seventeen are presented in full, chronologically, as they occurred in Ladejinsky's work experience and perspective. 8. Farm Tenancy in Japan Although dated June 25, 1947, I have established that, like the field studies reported on in "Landlord versus Tenant in Japan" this study was also completed in 1946, well before the enactment of the land reform legislation in October of that year and in ample time to help shape the final legislation. It is therefore a piece of prime historical value as well as of prime importance in Ladejinsky's career and in the assessment of his contribution. I had given some thought whether to include here this longer and updated article or the earlier "Farm Tenancy and Japanese Agriculture" of 1937 which helped to establish his reputation as an expert on farm tenancy in Japan and brought about his later involvement in the reform itself. The great difficulty encountered in obtaining a copy of this paper-the National Archives could not help, the Library of Congress reported that its only copy was missing, and one was finally found only when some of Ladejinsky's private papers were located-tipped the balance in favor of its selection here. The twenty-two tables appended to the report have been omitted. This study was published as Report no. 79 by Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), General Headquarters, Natural Resources Section, June 25, 1947. Summary land. Thus, 68 percent of all Japanese farmers are tenants or part tenants, and only 32 percent AGRICULTURE, JAPAN'S LEADING INDUSTRY, are peasant proprietors. Tenancy practices in provides total or partial occupation for 47 per- Japan place the tenant in a disadvantageous cent of the population and supplies 85 percent position. Rent is exorbitant, tenure is precari- of the country's food. Important as it is, for ous, and income from farming is so low that it many years before the war the majority of Japa- cannot satisfy even his frugal needs. Hence, the nese farmers could not operate profitably. The discontent and social unrest that characterizes economic insecurity of most Japanese farmers is the Japanese village. not a depression phenomenon. It is the result The Japanese government has recognized of the pressure of a large farm population on a that the tenancy system needs improvement. small arable area and of the spread of land Yet since 1922 all attempts toward betterment tenancy. Because of the inequitable land tenure have been half-hearted and have failed. Con- system, 28 percent of the farmers own no land cessions on the part of landowners and large and must rent the land they cultivate; 40 per- state expenditures were called for but did not cent own so little land that they are compelled take place. The tenants were not in a position to increase their cultivated holding by renting to effect desired changes, and farm tenancy in Farm Tenancy in Japan 69 Japan remained a major social and economic matter how hard the farmers try. This results in problem. Abolition of all tenancy in Japan is small uneconomic farm units. Inequitable land neither feasible nor desirable. But the economic ownership has given rise to widespread tenancy status of the tenants can be improved by aiding and absentee ownership. Governmental policies them to become farm owners and by revising which favored development of industry rather and improving tenancy practices. The Japanese than agriculture imposed a disproportionate tax government should carry out such a program load on farmers. It resulted in neglect of their through legislative and financial measures. economic plight. Sharp price fluctuations to To achieve greater diffusion of land owner- which the principal agricultural products' were ship among tenants, a certain amount of land subjected, high interest rates on farm loans, and should be purchased from the landlords at a unfavorable disparity between prices of indus- reasonable price for resale to the tenants. Re- trial and agricultural products added to the sale terms should be designed to strengthen the condition. new owners in their enterprises. Repayment The uneconomic state of Japanese agricul- terms of government loans should not be but- ture affects all classes cultivating the land. But densome. The development of land ownership the tenant farmers, who till nearly 50 percent will still leave a considerable tenanted area. It of the cultivated land and pay an exorbitant is important, therefore, that improved tenancy rental, carry the heaviest burden. In the two practices attend the program of ownership decades before 1941 serious conflicts between among tenants. These include: written long- landlord and tenant took the form of violent term agreements with fair rentals payable in demonstrations, strikes, injunctions, arrests, and cash, compensation for improvements in case of growth of farm tenant unions through which lease termination, and cheap credit facilities. an organized struggle against landlords was Improved tenancy practices and a well- waged. Much of the social unrest in Japan may devised and executed program of land owner- be attributed to the tenancy system. ship undoubtedly will raise the standard of For years tenancy overshadowed other agri- living of tenants. But it will not solve the basic cultural problems facing the Japanese govern- economic problem-the scarcity of arable land. ment. Solution of subsidiary problems largely Even the most thorough agrarian reform cannot depended on basic changes in the land tenure add to the arable land. So long as the average system. In the words of a Japanese writer, ten- farm holding remains at 2.4 acres or the farm ancy "has epitomized everything reactionary population cannot find alternative occupations, and retrogressive in Japan since the Meiji revo- Japanese agriculture will remain a problem. lution."2 Time did not permit thorough auditing of The nature of the land tenure system of statistical data collected through official Japa- Japan, official attempts to change it, and sug- nese government sources. gestions to remedy the situation are treated in this report. Introduction Physical and Population Factors For centuries agriculture has been the backbone in Japanese Agriculture of the economic life of Japan. The industrial and commercial progress of the country ob- In topography and soil, Japan is one of the scured this fact. Between 1919 and 1941 when poorer agricultural countries. Roughly 75 per- Japanese industry and foreign trade made their cent of its area has slopes too steep and soils too most notable advances, rural Japan presented a thin for cropping. picture of poverty, distress, and social unrest. This preponderance of highlands sets definite This is attributed to the fact that agriculture in limits to the cultivated area. By the time of the Japan does not pay. Many factors have contributed to this. First, 1. Rice and silkworm cocoons. a great farm population cultivates a very limited 2. Seiyei Wakukawa, "The Japanese Farm Ten- area which cannot be increased appreciably no ancy System," unpublished manuscript. 70 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Meiji Restoration5 most of the level land had production has been obtained only when the already been farmed. Farmers turned to the re- needs of each particular soil situation have maining lowlands, mountain slopes, and hill- been added. Nearly all Japanese soils are ex- sides. Between 1880 and 1939 the cultivated tremely deficient in nitrogen. Large amounts of area increased from 11,000,000 to 15,000,000 lime, nitrogen, and phosphorus are usually acres, or 36 percent. Table 1 [omitted) shows, necessary to obtain good yields. however, that practically no expansion of acre- A small cultivated area is a relative term. age has taken place since 1921 when Japan at- Its real meaning becomes apparent only when tained about 15,000,000 cultivated acres, largest related to the rural population it must support. on record. When this test is applied to Japan it appears Between 1940 and 1945 a sharp decline in that arable land is an even commodity. the cultivated acreage, from 14,894,000 acres Industry and commerce in Japan made great in 1940 to 13,633,000 acres in 1944, or 8.5 per- strides since 1880. But the remaining farm cent, was noted. The most drastic single reduc- population was sufficiently large to permit one tion of 532,000 acres took place in 1941. New to speak of Japan's main agrarian problem as installations of a military or semimilitary char- one of "many people on little land." acter (airports, training and testing grounds, When Japan came into contact with the industrial establishments) resulted in loss of Occident in 1853, almost 80 percent of the considerable acreage. Shortage of manpower in people were farmers. In 1940 farmers con- the rural districts, brought about by army drafts stituted 40 percent of the total (table 3 and high industrial employment, was another [omitted}). This sharply reduced ratio was not factor. Cultivated acreage reached the lowest due to decrease in the nonfarm population. The figure since 1900. number of agricultural families reached a high The Japanese government cannot be charged of 5,642,500 in 1932 as against 5,518,000 in with neglecting to seek expansion of its culti- 1886. Most of the subsequent reduction in num- vated acreage. Reclamation programs have not bers (144,000 between 1932 and 1940) was been successful because of rugged topography. regained. In 1944 Japanese farm families num- In the past twenty-five years not more than bered 5,624,116, almost the level of the peak 15,000,000 acres, or less than 16 percent of the years of 1931 and 1932. It is concluded by total estimated land area of Japan, have been Japanese industrialists that the number of cultivated. Compared with other countries, the people absorbed from the rural districts was ratio is small. Before World War II, Italy culti- not great enough to relieve the pressure on vated 41 percent, Germany 40 percent, France the land. 39 percent, and Great Britain 22 percent of the The scarcity of cultivated land in Japan is total land area. In the continental United States, evidenced by the number of farm families as where much arable land has not been put to related to the cultivated area (tables 1, 2, and use, 18 percent of the total land is under culti- 3 [omitted]). If the land were evenly dis- vation. The acreage distribution by prefecture tributed, each household would cultivate 2.7 (table 2 fomitted]) shows that Hokkaido acres in 1939 and 2.4 acres in 1944. A cross with 15 percent of the total cultivated acreage section of Japan shows a gradual increase in has by far the largest rate of cultivation. Dis- the size of farm units from south to north but tribution among the other prefectures ranges with considerable variations in individual pre- from a high of 4.0 percent (Niigata) to a low fectures (table 4 [omitted]). In southwestern of 0.7 percent (Nara). Japan, the farm units are usually under two The soils of Japan vary owing to the differ- acres in size with some of the holdings along ent materials from which they are formed. Most the Inland Sea averaging as low as 1.5 acres. In of them are inferior in natural fertility. High 4. Double and multiple cropping so character- 3. In 1868 when Emperor Meiji ascended the istic of Japanese agriculture raises the acreage actually throne to begin the "Enlightened Era," ending in harvested by one-third. On this basis the average 1912. land harvested per family would be 3.6 acres. Farm Tenancy in Japan 71 northern Honshu this figure is increased to over of land or less. Hence, in Japan "even land- 3 acres, while in Hokkaido the average is 10 lordism is on a molecular scale."5 acres. Whatever the variations (excluding Hok- This is supported by data on the estimated kaido), the pressure of so many people on a acreage rented out by each owner group (table small cultivated area can result only in very 7 [omitted]). Even the group of "less than small holdings. 1.2 acres" rents out nearly a fourth of the land In the majority of cases, actual size of it owns. The same is true of the owners in the cultivated holdings is much smaller than the category of 1.2 to 2.4 acres. The remaining five average of 2.7 acres. In 1941 about 34 percent categories show a sharp increase in the ratio of the families cultivated less than 1.2 acres of leased land to that of owned, depending upon each (table 5 [omitted]), or an average of 0.7 the size of the owned holdings. In the "122 acres per family; 30 percent cultivated less than acre and over" category the ratio reaches a high 2.5 acres per family. The farmers who cultivated of 98 percent. A prefectural breakdown (table from 7.4 acres (3 cho) to 12.2 acres (5 cho) 8 [omitted]), based on data collected in 1946, number only 119,000 or 2.2 percent of all farm indicates that the composition of the Japanese families; of these, 35 percent are in Hokkaido. landlords has not changed in the past decade. Farmers who cultivated more than 12.2 acres Typical examples of molecular landlordism total 70,000, of whom 89 percent are in Hok- are the most parasitic group living off the ten- kaido. Small holdings often are broken into ants. Their rented holdings are so small that widely scattered plots, causing the majority of even the rack renting they practice is not suffi- Japanese farmers to work on small plots which cient to provide them with a sufficient income. resemble gardens rather than fields. They work as "salary-earners, merchants, offi- cials, moneylenders or, as a supplement, hotel and brothel keepers."6 The grand landlords of Japan are those who Unequal Distribution of Land Ownership own 122 acres (50 cho) or more. In 1940 they and Tenancy numbered 2,941 as against 3,410 in 1935. Re- cent statistics are inadequate on the variation in The holding cultivated by a Japanese farmer size of holdings owned by this group, amount has little relation to the amount of land owned of land they rent out, and land they cultivate. by the same farmer. An analysis of land owner- The only available data cover the year 1924 ship in Japan bears this out (table 6 [omitted]). (table 9 [omitted]). But in view of the slow Data on the problem show that 50 percent of changes in the social structure of rural society all farm owners possess only 18 percent of the in Japan, it may be assumed that they are land; 75 percent of all the farmers own not representative of the large landowners of the more than 34 percent of the land; and 97 per- more recent years. cent of the farmers own 71 percent of the land. The holdings of 89 percent of these land- The remaining three percent constitute the lords range from 166 to 323 acres. Only 25 real core of landlordism in Japan. This mi- such landlords out of 3,176 averaged 4,589 nority owns 29 percent of the cultivated land. acres each. Hokkaido alone accounted for 10 It accounts for 48 percent of all the land of the biggest holdings. One-fifth of the owners in this group owned one-fourth of the land. In worke bylteantlos a part tans.l dgeneral, this prefecture is the principal center Japanese landlords are nor a small district of concentration of land ownership. group of rent collectors. As a class they are less An average of 11 acres was cultivated by homogenous than any similar group in the each of the 1,454 cultivating owners of the Occident. Although not large, Japanese land 3,176 premier landlords of Japan recorded in ownership includes a number of owners with a 1924. This figure increased to 42 acres in Hok- great deal of land. The scale of operation of the average Japanese farmer is so small and the de- mand for land is so great that one may become 5. S. Wakukawa, "Japanese Farm Tenancy.' a rent collector through ownership of an acre 6. Ibid. 72 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 kaido and decreased to 5.5 acres elsewhere in These shifts, despite the increase in the num- Japan. Fifty-two percent of all landlords did ber of tenants, point to improvement rather not work any of their land, while the other 48 than deterioration in the economic status of percent cultivated only 1.7 percent of the owned the farmers. In the past, the rise of tenancy was land. Since all of these large holdings are an index of further impoverishment of the broken into small rented units, the number of independent owners or part owners-part tenants tenants per landlord is rather large. Those land- or both. Evidence does not show that in 1939- lords with 122 to 245 acres averaged 148 ten- 44 the latter categories helped to swell the ants each, while the 25 largest owners averaged ranks of the tenants. The large increase in ten- 971 tenants each. ants (8 percent more than in 1939) was essen- tially a wartime phenomenon, which helped the village economy. Many new war industries were Extent of Tenancy established in rural districts, and the workers Because of the unequal distribution of land and their families were eager to grow their ownership, many farmers in Japan own no own food. Conditions were propitious since owners were unable to cultivate all of their land at all and must cultivate that belonging to own g to the e shotae of per others. Some own so little that in order to i- and dwnftoe and a hnumbe of pwr prove their economic position they must rent . a l . ants were voluntarily returning some of their additional land. This accounts for the three rented land. Increased tenancy kept that land groups into which the Japanese land tenure in production, at the same time providing the system is divided: owners, part owners, and owners with additional income they would have tenants. In 1944 the first category constituted otherwise lost. Since part of the reduced acre- 32.0 percent of the farm families; the second age between 1940-44 was caused by the in- group accounted for 39.8 percent; and the ability of farmers to keep all their land in third group, the tenants, who are completely production, it may be assumed that the increase divorced from ownership of the land they in tenant numbers kept the reduction of culti- cultivate, constituted 28.3 percent (table 10 vated acreage from being greater. [omitted] ). Tenants and part tenants repre- The increase in owners (6 percent over that sent 68 percent of all farm families. of 1939) may be explained by the relatively In the thirty years before World War 11, prosperous war years as well as increased de- the social structure of the Japanese village mand and high prices for agricultural products. showed little change. The number of owners Some farmers were able to move up the ladder declined slightly despite weak government at- of the Japanese land tenure system, a normally tempts to reduce tenancy. This met with no difficult process. Since it is easier for a part success until 1937 when the category of part owner-part tenant to take advantage of im- owners-part tenants showed an insignificant in- proved economic conditions than it is for a crease. A writer on Japanese agriculture noted that the structure of the Japanese village "has bet of owners came mainly from the ranks of ossified, so to speak. Now one sees a picture te pr ownerart tant group. sli,hty dffren frm 0 y ,rsag. the part owner-part tenant group. slightly different from 30 years ago." The prevalence of tenancy in Japan is evi- The years 1939-44 considerably changed this dent from the amount of land tilled by tenants. picture when judged by the slow shifts in the Official data for the years immediately follow- OfficialedatacfdresheFyamsoimmrdiatelytfollow past three decades. Farm owners and tenants ing the Meiji restoration are not available. have gained 100,000 and 122,000 families, re- Estimates indicate that in 1872 approximately spectively. The middle group, that of part 30 percent of all cultivated land was under ten- owner-part tenant has declined by 90,000 ancy. This figure rose to 37 percent in 1883; families. 39 percent in 1887; and 40 percent in 1892. For rice fields alone, the figure was 45 percent 7. Andrew J. Grajdarizev, Statistics of Japauese in that year. In the last decade of the nineteenth Agriculture (New York: Institute of Pacific Rela- century, the pattern of tenancy was well estab- tions, 1941), p. 9. lished. In the intervening years, tenancy has Farm Tenancy in Japan 73 continued to increase, although slowly, and in Hokkaido, therefore, has relatively large-scale recent years the tenants and part tenants culti- tenant farming, whereas the rest of Japan repre- vated 46 percent of all the land. The backbone sents small-scale tenant farming. The pre- of Japanese agriculture is the all-important rice dominance of uplands in Hokkaido enables the crop raised on paddy fields, and it is there that tenant family to cultivate, in Japanese terms, a tenants predominate. In 1943 they cultivated fairly large holding. The lower reproductivity 53 percent of the paddy and only 37 percent of of the uplands as compared to paddy fields is the dry fields (table 11 [omitted]). another factor that compels the tenants of Tenancy is prevalent in all agricultural areas Hokkaido to cultivate a larger acreage. of Japan. But the extent and pattern of tenant But even with Hokkaido included, Japan is occupancy differs in each prefecture. The ratio perhaps the only country where a tenant farm of tenants to the total number of farm house- is so small. Thus 50 percent of all the tenants holds is greatest in Osaka (table 12 [omitted]). rent less than 1.2 acres each, or an average of Hokkaido is a close second. In only three pre- 0.5 of an acre, and another 27 percent rent be- fectures is the proportion of tenants to all other tween 1.2 and 2.4 acres, or an average of 1.7 farm families less than 20 percent. acres. Seventy-seven percent of the tenants rent The prefectural distribution of tenated acre- and cultivate even less than the average of 2 age sheds further light on the land tenure acres per family. This explains the poverty of system of Japan (table 13 [omitted]). The Japanese tenants. prefectures of Miyagi, Kagawa, and Akita show the heaviest concentration. Next in importance and except for the extreme northern part of Factors in the Rise of Tenancy Honshu (Aomori prefecture) is the region fac- ing west to the Japan Sea, including the pre- Farm tenancy in Japan began in the eighth fectures of Chiba, Tochigi, and Kumamoto. Far Anc m a n eanlinhe igth The proportion of land cultivated by tenants to century AD. It was firmly established during the the total cultivated area is smallest in southern Tokugawa Shogunate (feudal regime) I and as- Kyushu (and Okinawa), parts of southeastern sumed its present form with the passing of Honshu, and the greater part of southeastern feudalism and the advent of the Meiji era. To Shikoku. escape from the oppression of local authorities, The term "tenanted acreage" covers land farmers would place themselves and their land cultivated by a farmer who owns practically no under the protection of feudal lords. Some land (pure tenant) as well as land rented by a farmers lost title to the land in the process and farmer who owns a considerable part of the in effect became cultivators of the soil at the holding he cultivates (part tenant or part pleasure of the feudal barons. As the landhold- owner). The pure tenant group, with which ings of the lords continued to increase legally this report is mainly concerned, cultivates ap- or illegally, the outright renting of land became proximately 40 percent of all the rented land, a common practice. averaging two acres per family. Table 14 Under the Tokugawa regime, all land was [omitted] shows that the size of a tenant hold- theoretically controlled by the Shogun. Its sale ing is much greater in Hokkaido than in the and purchase was prohibited. But toward the rest of Japan, and that in the majority of cases end of the feudal era various devices were in- the actual size of a tenant holding is smaller vented to elude this restriction. Many farmers thate average of 2 acres. mortgaged their holdings to raise funds to In Hokkaido the average size of a cultivated satisfy the lords' demands and their own needs. holding is 10.2 acres as compared with 2.1 acres Failure to repay resulted in foreclosures. Land elsewhere in Japan. This is reflected in the size passed, in fact although not in theory, into the of farms cultivated by tenants. In Hokkaido 57 percent of tenant-cultivated land is in holdings of more than 12.2 acres and 2.6 percent in hold- 8. The term "kosaku" meaning land tenancy or tenant, came into usage during the Tokugawa regime. ings of less than 2.4 acres. Figures for the rest The Tokugawa dynasty was founded in 1603 and re- of Japan are 0.3 and 43.7 percent, respectively. mained in power until 1868. 74 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 hands either of the rising merchant class, large prise between the landlord, who supplies capital landholders, or of the more prosperous farmers. in the form of land and sometimes in the form Those who lost the land became tenant farmers. of equipment, livestock, fertilizer, and a certain After the abolition of feudalism in 1868, the amount of management and the tenant who clear title of peasants to the land was legally supplies labor and usually all, or most, of the recognized. In cases where farmers mortgaged operating expenses as well as most of the man- their land and agreed to pay rent to the mort- agement of the farm.""' Where such fair, joint gage holders in return for permanent use of enterprises develop, tenants may be economi- the land, the mortgagor received title to the cally better off as tenants than owners. This land. In such instances the farmers became holds true in many regions in the Western ordinary tenants without privileges and rights countries. In Great Britain, for example, many held under their former arrangement of perma- tenants prefer to retain their status when given nent tenancy. At the same time, "the erstwhile a chance to become owners. warrior-rulers were compensated for loss of Tenancy becomes an undesirable economic their feudal privileges with government lands, and social institution when certain evils de- cash, and subsidies amounting to Y379 inil- velop. The Japanese land tenure system has lion, an enormous sum for the time. This outlay been a "partnership" heavily weighted in favor was assessed on the landowners in the form of of the landlord. It resulted from the heavy de- a new land tax-not a few ex-feudal lords in- mand for a limited supply of land, the central vested their bonds in land. Their hold on the problem of Japanese agriculture. The tenant peasantry thus shifted from feudal overlordship has been willing to bind himself to the land to modern landlordship. Some of them, by regardless of the exactions. He has not wished questionable means, succeeded in having their to abandon the leased land since the oppor- feudal holdings recognized as private property tunities of finding employment in other occu- by the new regime.") pations are poor. For this reason in the decade The change from a feudal to a money econ- before World War II the tenants' struggle omy also helped to swell the tenant ranks. The against the landlord was not so much for a re- land tax and all other taxes were paid in cash duction of rent, exorbitant though it was, as and not in kind as heretofore. Rapid adjustment for the right to cultivate the land. It was a from one type of economy to another worked struggle for security of tenure. hardship on many independent farmers. The The right of the tenant to remain on the necessity of obtaining cash to meet heavy taxa- land is so vital that the question of long-term tion led many into indebtedness, frequently re- tenure and leasing arrangements in general sulting in the loss of land. Moreover, the big are of paramount importance. Many Japanese landowners and well-to-do farmers who owned tenants are not certain about the duration of more land than they could cultivate themselves their tenure. Leases for a long period are rare, found it more profitable to rent it to tenants although a "permanent" tenancy practice exists. than to use hired labor. Moreover, the Japanese This is a carry-over from feudal times when urban middle class for many years has invested tenure was secure and generally continued un- its savings in land, which provided a safe and disturbed over long periods of years. Even in assured income. modern times this system insures a tenant's tenure for twenty to fifty years. However, a leasing arrangement extends to a very limited Conditions of Tenancy number of tenants. A survey (1921-36) re- Tenancy as an agrarian institution is not an vealed that less than 3 percent of tenants, culti- evil. Its existence in virtually every country vating about 1 percent of all the tenanted land, shows that it has a sound economic basis. A came under the "permanent" system. just system of tenancy "is a partnership enter- It is not uncommon to find a tenant family 9. Andrew J. Grajdanzev, Statistics of Japanese 10. Lossing Buck, "Farm Tenancy in China," un- Agriculture, pp. 13-14. published manuscript, p. 2. Farm Tenancy in Japan 75 working the same land for several generations. But in practice this privilege is exercised solely But most agreements are for from three to five by the landlord. years. In fruit and mulberry gardens, the term An official statement of the Japanese Minis- of agreement is usually from ten to fifteen try of Agriculture and Forestry summarizes the years. Often agreements do not specify any nature of the one-sided partnership embodied fixed period. The farmer is allowed to work in the landlord-tenant lease. "The land reverts the land continuously, provided he has the to the landlord," it declares, "but with partial goodwill of the landlord and uncomplainingly compensation if the field has standing grain, furnishes the exactions imposed upon him. without compensation if the field has no stand- Agreements are both oral and written with ing grain, for the labor the tenant has put in, the former predominating. In the northern pre- seeds, and fertilizer which has been used. In fectures (Hokkaido, Aomori, Yamagata, Akita, case the tenant wishes to return the field to the Fukushima, and Ibaraki) where the biggest landlord, he gets no compensation at all."' landholdings are concentrated, from 70 to 80 This statement was made nearly a quarter of a percent of the agreements are written. These century ago. Yet basically nothing has changed. are initiated by the landlords and are drawn in The right to cultivate the land has continued their favor (annex 1). A typical written agree- to be the chief concern of the tenant. Field ment is signed by the tenant and one or two investigations in 1946 revealed the same con- guarantors. The latter must pay the rent in case cern about the landlord's ability to abrogate an the tenant fails to do so. With the possible ex- agreement and the bitter conflicts that such ac- ception of two or three prefectures, most agree- tions brought about. The landlords now are ments are oral (table 15 [omitted)). A less prone to indulge in such acts. But this Japanese economist states: "These (written) change in attitude is caused chiefly by the contracts for the first time included a time foreknowledge of events which are likely to limit, usually extending over several years. But establish a new rural pattern for future years. one must remember that this form of bargain- Insecurity of tenure is only one phase of the ing has been far from universal, being prac- inferior bargaining position of the tenant. The ticed only by a limited group of tenants, and other phase which bears directly upon his low the majority are still renting land by the old economic status concerns the rent he pays for method, that is, they are at the mercy of their the privilege of working the land and the man- landlords."'' net in which it is paid. Whether written or oral, landlord-tenant Sharecropping, prevalent in the United leasing arrangements do not afford the tenant States, is practiced very little in Japan. The much protection. This is true particularly in the "flexible tenant system" is adopted only in a important matter of cultivation right. Even few regions that are frequently subject to natu- though in many cases agreements are for periods ral calamities. Under this system, rent is fixed ranging from three to five years, they usually every year after the condition of the crop is do not prevent the landlord from getting the examined. The most widely used system of pay- land back whenever he wishes. Some agree- ment is fixed quantity of produce or cash per ments permit him to recover the land before its unit of land, agreed upon in advance (table 16 expiration, with no compensation to the tenant [omitted]). For the most part, the amount of for the inconvenience (annexes 1A and IC). the rent is based on yields in good years. This Other agreements provide for compensation in places the full burden of the loss from a poor cases where the landlord wishes to break the harvest upon the tenant unless he can obtain a agreement (annex IB). In both cases the ten- reduction in rent. According to a Japanese ant loses the right to cultivate the land. The writer, the burden of rent shouldered by a tenant, too, has a right to abrogate an agreement. tenant "is all the heavier, too, because of the 11. Shiroshi Nasu, Aspects of Japanese Agri- 12. S. Kawada, "Tenant System in Japan and culture (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, Korea," Kyoto University Economic Reriew (1926), 1941), p. 19. p. 40. 76 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 arrangement whereby the tenant farmer pays survives, has been estimated to be from 5 per- his landlord so many bushels of rice per tan." cent to 25 percent of the original rent. This amount does not change much, irrespective Rents for rice lands are almost always paid of whether the crop is large or small. In other in rice. In the less important upland fields, cash words, the landowners are assured of a certain rents predominate. Cash rents are paid on less stabilized quantity of harvest regardless of the than 1 percent of the rice field acreage sur- yield."14 But even when reductions are granted, veyed (table 15 (omitted]). Rent in kind con- the bargaining process involved in determining verted into money equivalent accounts for 12 the amount or percentage of reduction causes percent, and 87 percent is straight payment in many disputes between landlords and tenants. kind. On the other hand, rents for 57 percent Rents exacted are high, especially when com- of the upland fields are paid in cash and only pared with rents paid in Western countries. 29 percent in kind. Payment in kind for rice Rent for a single-crop rice field is approxi- lands works hardship on the tenants because mately 50 percent of the crop. Rents on upland they are unable to take advantage of a favorable fields range from 30 to 40 percent, depending market situation. The landlords are the real on cash payment or payment in kind, respec- beneficiaries. tively. Rents vary in prefectures. They are The fact that until 1945 the principal pay- highest in Kagoshima, Kochi, Shimane, Oka- ments of rent were made in kind is another yama, Nagano, and Hiroshima, with payments tenant handicap. Rents in kind have declined from 56 to 58 percent of the yield from a since 1921, the year when they were excep- single-crop field. Rents are lowest (32 to 40 tionally high (table 17 (omitted]). This de- percent) in Hokkaido, Tokyo, and Okinawa. cline, however, did not exceed 10 percent, even In terms of the amount of rice, the average in the early 1930s when the agricultural de- rental for a single crop paddy field was 1.03 pression was rather severe. The monetary value koku15 per tan, according to an investigation by of rent in kind has actually risen. Rice prices the Japan Hypothec Bank in March 1943. have been subjected to severe fluctuations. But Studies by the Ministry of Agriculture cover- on the whole the trend has been upward since ing 1941-43 show that the average rental was 1900. Even when prices declined sharply in the 0.91 koku of rice for one-crop fields and 1.113 early 1930s, much of the loss of the landlords koku in cases where the fields were double was absorbed by special state rice subsidies. cropped. On the whole, the average rent Rising prices have been a boon for the Japa- amounted to one koku of unhulled rice per tan, nese landlords who sell 85 percent of their crop, which is approximately one-half of the rice- largely acquired in payment of rent in kind. yield per tan. Many of the tenants, although they produce Occasionally the amount of rent collected fully one-half of the rice crop, are nevertheless by the landlord is greater than that specified in compelled to purchase additional quantities of the agreement. This is the outgrowth of an old rice for their own consumption. A sample study on the deg,ree of rice self-sufficiency showed custom by which the tenant turns over an extra amount of rice in addition to the specified quan- that 60 percent of the tenants did not need to amouThe practice known under various names buy rice. The remaining 40 percent had to tity. asTh erice," knonunr va s n s acquire varying quantities of rice before har- such as "added rice," "mouth rice," and "spilled vesting the new crop. rice" is still found in some regions. This sys- When the tenant does sell rice, it is usually tem of surcharges is additional evidence of the immediately after harvest when prices are powerful position of the Japanese landlords, lowest. He is in no position to benefit from the The cost to the tenants, where the custom still higher prices later in the season. Because of the little influence exerted by tenants in the rice market, they were unable to take advantage of 13. One tan-0.245 acre. governmental price policies of the 1920s and 14. Magohachiro Kimura, Japan's Agrarian Prob- 930s, presumably designed to relieve general lems (Foreign Affairs Association of Japan, Decem- ber 1937), p. 12. rural distress. "If, therefore, the agricultural 15. One koku-5.119 bushels. price policy is to attain the desired end," a Farm Tenancy in Japan 77 Japanese writer noted, "it is imperative that time shoulders the major costs of bringing in the farm tenancy system should be properly the crop. The tenant is a mere tool of produc- revised. In other words, insofar as the agri- tion. cultural price policy aims at stabilization of What tenancy in Japan means in terms of agricultural life, the solution of the farm ten- economic well-being can be obtained from an ancy problem and, accordingly, the settlement examination of farm family budget studies. of the land problem is required, as a matter of Such a study was made of the budgets of thirty- course, for its proper execution.""' One might five tenants by the Japanese Ministry of Agri- add that, in any scheme for improving the Japa- culture in 1920. The number of cases studied nese land tenure system, the substitution of a was small, yet it throws revealing light on the cash-rent system for payments in kind would standard of living of a tenant. It shows that a undoubtedly have a salutary effect upon the tenant cultivating 3.7 acres (far above the economic status of the tenant. average tenant holding) ended the year with The high rental the tenant must pay is not a net deficit of 44 yen.17 The deficit would have the only charge that he must bear in running been greater but for the fact that the tenant the farm. The landlord pays the greater part of spent nothing for the education of children" the various taxes and assessments, but the tenant nor social activities and made no allowance for is not free from them. He is responsible for the interest on debts. village and house taxes. But more important is An investigation into the living conditions the arrangement whereby all the tenant receives of 208 tenants during September 1926-August from the landlord is the land. The tenant must 1927 revealed that the average income of a provide his own house, farm buildings, imple- tenant farmer from all sources was not sufficient ments, commercial fertilizers, and seeds. He to cover living expenses. The tenant's yearly does not receive compensation from the land- income from agriculture alone amounted to lord for expenditures involved in procuring Y567. His expenses for the corresponding these items. The tenant share of the crop must period were #975, making a deficit of #408. take care of them. Even if the tenant were con- Even the additional income derived from other cerned only with the purchase of fertilizer, his sources was #25 short of meeting the deficit." proportion of the crop would be much smaller A somewhat similar situation is shown by than that of the landlord. The share of the crop the family budget investigations covering 1932, from which the tenant draws sustenance fre- 1935, and 1936-38. The year 1936 may be quently represents less than 30 percent of the taken as representative. While farm conditions crop. then were not as good as those of 1937 and Before World War II, the Japanese tenant 1938, they were much better than those of was an exploited poor farmer. The exploitation 1932 and 1935. A total of 84 owners, 103 part was in accord with the feudal adage that "farm- owners, and 86 tenants were investigated. The ers should neither live nor die." In eagerness owners averaged a total net income of #1,030 to retain the tenant status for the lack of alter- as against total household expenditures of native occupations, he has subjected himself to 2841, or a balance of Y189. For the part terms which even in good seasons keep him at o81er a balanc 1 the art theboto o th eonmi an .oilshm owners and tenants, the respective balances the bottom of the economic and social scheme were #161 and #101.20 Here, too, subsidiary of a village. These terms are: (a) Uncertainty of tenure. Duration is subject to the whim of the landlord, since agreements, written or oral, 17. Shuichi Harada, Labor Conditions in Japan are so drawn up that they offer the tenant little (New York, 1928), p. 84. protection. (b) The tenant pays the landlord 18. This compares with Y427 and Y29, the aver- at least one-half of the crop and at the same age spent for education by landlords and farm pro- prietors, respectively. 19. Shiroshi Nasu, Land Utilization in Japan (Tokyo: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1929), p. 198. 16. "The Establishment of Peasant Proprietor- 20. From table 17 (omitted]. Some results of ship," Kyoto University Economic Review (December family budget investigations in Andrew J. Grajdan- 1936),pp. 61-62. zev, Statistics of Japanese Agriculture. 78 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 occupations were important; otherwise the ten- Japanese tenancy system that a tenant remains ants would have shown a deficit of #49 while in that category unless he has opportunity to the owners and part owners would have en- change occupation. He has difficulty in becom- joyed surpluses of only #59 and #31, respec- ing a part owner. It is almost impossible for tively. him to achieve the status of independent farm The most recent investigation (March proprietor. 1941-February 1942) by the Ministry of Agri- In 1941 the equity of the farm proprietor in culture and Forestry reveals a similar situation. his establishment was worth an estimated The forty-three tenants covered averaged nearly #11,000, that of the part-owner Y7,000. Even 4 acres each as against a countrywide (ex- the tenant required a capital of Y3,000. If a cluding Hokkaido) average of 1.5 acres. Their tenant, clear of all debt, employed his annual gross agricultural income was larger than in savings of #200 in addition to the money al- previous years, but so were expenditures, par- ready invested and wished to become a part ticularly for food and clothing. The tenants owner or a peasant proprietor, it would take averaged a net income of #202, made possible him twenty and forty years, respectively, to only by an income from subsidiary occupations achieve that status. Exceptions would be few. averaging #238. The normal financial position of the tenant Subsidiary occupations of the farmer often reveals a tenant cannot rise above his status turn a threatened deficit into a surplus. A sur- through his own efforts. It explains the failure vey of the income of farmers from all sources of the limited Japanese government efforts to for 1913-34 revealed that, with the exception reduce tenancy before World War II. of 1913, income from their own farming each During 1941-45, the position of many Japa- year fell short of meeting household expendi- nese tenants improved. The basic equal division tures. This forced the farmers to seek nonagri- of the crop remained. But the tenant benefited cultural income to make up the deficit. Income through the general increase of agricultural from subsidiary occupations ranged from 21 to prices. The price of rice, the most important 31 percent of the total.21 Income of the tenant crop, rose from Y43 to #300 per koku be- from agricultural pursuits being lowest among tween 1940-1946. Cost of production has also the other farm categories, the tenant maintained increased, but not sufficiently to eliminate the his lowly position only by devoting more time advantages the tenants received from the price to subsidiary occupations than did the peasant increase. The tenants also benefited from a proprietor or part owner. The nature of the change in the rent collecting system introduced subsidiary occupations and the number of days in wartime. The tenant delivers his rent in kind, the three categories of farmers devote to them not to the landlord but to a government agency is shown in tables 18 and 19 [omitted]. where it is credited to the account of the land- Household expenditures of a tenant or lord. For each koku so delivered, the tenant farmer, after income from all sources was added, received Y245 as against =55 paid to the land- accounted for his low standard of living. In lord. The tenant's rent is still one koku, or 50 1936 such expenditures by a tenant amounted percent of the crop. But in terms of money re- to #676, or *1.8 per family per day. As these ceived by the landlord, the rent represents only households average six persons, the actual ex- 9 percent of one crop. Since April 1946 all penditure per person was #0.3. The meager in- rents in Japan are payable in cash. The tenant's come from agriculture and subsidiary occupa- rent is #75 per tan instead of the usual one tions permitted the tenant to till the landlord's koku of rice per tan, the price of rice remaining land only because of such small expenses. #300 per koku. On this basis rent amounts to The low net income of a tenant is immedi- 12.5 percent of the crop. ately responsible for the basic feature of the Where land is double cropped, rent is con- siderably lower. If the wheat crop from the same piece of land is 1.4 koku, its money value 21. Hidetoshi Isobi, Labor Conditions in Japa- is #327. The total value of the crops (2 koku nese Agriculture (Utsunomiya Agricultural College, of rice and 1.4 koku of wheat) will amount to 1937), p. 66. Y927. In that case the tenant's rental of #75 Farm Tenancy in Japan 79 represents only 8 percent of the crops. Through from 2,300 million yen in 1940 to 16,200 mil- such rent policies the burden of the tenant has lion yen in 1945. This sum was deposited solely been considerably lightened. with the Agricultural Association (Nogyokai). In wartime it was easier for a tenant to ask Unascertained sums deposited with other insti- and receive better treatment from the landlord. tUtions add to the total. It is obvious, therefore, This resulted from the shortage of farm labor that most farmers could liquidate their debts and the increase in nonagricultural occupations. without outside aid if they wished to do so or Some tenants were voluntarily returning rented if their creditors were insisting on immediate land as shown by data collected on a field trip repayment. Many of them do not. They prefer in Saitama prefecture. A survey22 of 292 vil- to wait for economic stabilization before set- lages revealed that, between July 1941 and tlement. June 1943, 3,125 tenants returned 1,682 acres The large deposit increase was not caused by of paddy and upland fields to the landlords. The cash accumulation of a particular group of figures for the next two years were 3,919 ten- farmers. The average deposit of a peasant pro- ants and 1,870 acres and 5,988 tenants and prietor was )2,200, that of a part owner 3,657 acres, respectively. The land involved Y2,300. Even the tenants averaged -X11,300. was large considering the average holding of Tenants alone have deposited about Y2 million a tenant. But the action itself was most im- with the agricultural associations. Compared portant. with their estimated indebtedness of Y241 mil- For the first time in years, the tenant found lion, the tenants' debt burden is virtually non- himself in an improved bargaining position. existent. Those who took advantage of the development The tenants' improved economic position benefited. The tenant also gained to some ex- indicated by indebtedness against deposits is tent from the rise in the agricultural prices, temporary. It is a war phenomenon and does legal and illegal (particularly from the latter), not come from changes in conditions of ten- as the war neared its end. Debts of long stand- ancy that might indicate a lasting improvement. ing were discharged and savings were begun. The transitory character of the tenants' eco- Before World War II, farm indebtedness in nomic position is apparent. He cannot exchange Japan was estimated at about 5,000 to 6,000 the accumulated cash for tangible assets. Above million yen. The war years witnessed the liqui- all, he cannot now exchange it for land. Little dation of the greater part of the debt. A survey land is for sale. The tenant's cash assets are of twenty-four prefectures in January 1946 re- only large enough to enable him to buy a tan vealed that about 47 percent of the surveyed or two of paddy land at the official price (Y750 farm households are in debt, the average for per tan). these families (peasant proprietors, part owners, The tenant is again feeling the insecurity of and tenants) being less than Y800. Only 38 tenure. Agriculture is the only segment of the percent of tenants investigated were in debt, Japanese economy that survived defeat in good the average per tenant family being Y400. On condition. This adversely affects the tenants' the basis of this survey, total farm indebtedness hold on the land. Many small owners, whose may be estimated at about 1,800 million yen. only connection with the land in the past was The tenant share in this total is N241 million. in collecting rent, now are eager to cultivate If these estimates are valid, the farm debt of some of the rented land. They hope to insure Japan is only one-third of the prewar debt. It themselves of a greater food supply and to may be contended that this reduced indebted- circumvent the Land Reform Bill of December ness is more apparent than real and does not 18, 1945, which intends to substitute rental in constitute a real burden. This fact was revealed cash for that in kind. Many absentee owners, by personal inquiries in a number of villages. part of whose income was derived from now It is supported by the increase in farm deposits nonexisting industrial or commercial pursuits, have returned to the village willing to culti- vate some of the land leased to tenants. In 22. Conducted by the Agricultural Bureau of the Saitama prefecture alone a survey of 136 vil- Prefectural office. lages revealed that 1,830 landlords claimed 80 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 some of their rented land. Demobilized soldiers and land involved, and the causes of the disputes add to the competition for land. The bargaining are presented in tables 20 and 21 (omitted]. position enjoyed by the tenant in wartime is The number of disputes in 1917 was 85. They gone. He finds himself in a position more diffi- rose to 1,680 in 1921 and more than 2,000 in cult than in prewar days. 1930. They reached a peak of nearly 7,000 in 1935.2' They then declined to 2,424 in 1943 because of wartime improvement in the eco- Tenant Unrest and Its Causes nomic condition of tenants and because of wartime appeals to patriotism and unity. Every The burdens shouldered by the tenant have dispute involved an average of four or more ne landlords and twenty or more tenants. A tenant nevre acctimeptfied bya as a ate often rents land from a number of landlords, course. Ar rimes he reacted violently. This is al.fwo a beivle.nadsue proven by the agrarian uprisings in the first two tl he late inols tna dispte decades of the Meiji restoration.- The issues cnied lae to a concerned all of the peasantry. They included few prefectures Such as policy,' usurious loans, Saitama, Kanagawa, Gifu, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, gerlnmen motarytion and Okayama, which is 40 percent tenanted new land and taxation measures, and military.. . acreage. As agricultural conditions worsened, conscription. Other issues also have affected the . i tenants including security of tenure, reduced militant farm organizations grew. Every prefec- rents, and rent payment in cash instead of kind. ture except Okinawa became disrupted by dis- pties. The eographical distribution of the The revolts were crushed, and the landlord- . tenant relationship continued until about the disp.tes reflected the extent of agricultural dIs- end of World War I without causing much tress in each region. This fact explains the shift open conflict. A slight improvemnent in the of a greater number of disputes from the rice to position of tenants plus the conservatism and the predominantly silk areas when the price of ingrained feudal custom of obedience to land- cocoons declined and, later, to famine stricken northwest areas. lords helped reduce friction to a minimTmM, ndesr During the last twenty-five years the relation- .yi caises of the disptes are many. s changed. Growing industrial unrest, Two are outstanding: (a) excessive rent and shp(b) the attempt on the part of the landlords strengthening of the industrial labor movement to terminate, or their refsal to renew, leases. in Japan, and the spread of ideas opposed to Until the late 1920s reduction in rent was the established concepts made landlord-tenant rela- . tions similar to strained conditions between datin isstieaAided by thir far t ra- inutilwokr n epoes2ation and rapidly growing unions, tenants de- inut dirkersstsai. manifested manded rent reduction not only in time of poor The increasing dissatisfaction manifested.. incring yields but irrespective of the size of the yield. itself in the growing nuimber of disputes be- Whra .nteps iareet ctre tween landlords and tenants, so serious in char- afer.ea in the atements disutes acter that they have assumed the proportion of would aie bothebefore the soin andiafter .would arise both before the sowing and after a national problem. Tenant and landlord unions developed. The number and the seriousness of The ares . The excessive rent issue graduially moved disputes increased rapidly. . disputes inrese into the background as a new dispute centered Basic data on the number of disputes, people abtreftsothlndrstowsthead about efforts of the landlords to wrest the land from a given group or individual tenants and 23. E. Herbert Norman, Soldier and Peasant in to dispose of it as they saw fit. This was an Japan: The Origins of Conscription (New York: open attack on the tenants' most cherished Institute of Pacific Relations, 1943), p. 41, states, right: security of tenure. "In the standard collection of documents illustrating agrarian unrest in the early Meiji period, there are mentioned altogether 260 agrarian revolts and 14 up- risings in the larger towns; in the first ten years of 24. The figures on disputes represent only those the Meiji rule the same source mentions 185 peasant in the open. Actual discontent must have been revolts." greater than the official data indicated. Farm Tenancy in Japan 81 Japanese statistics on tenant disputes reflect tenants realized more fully the significance of this change very clearly. In 1921 two-thirds of collective bargaining. That the tenants were the disputes were caused by excessive rents. quick to see the economic advantage of con- Not a single dispute was recorded on the certed action is illustiated by the rapid growth grounds of eviction. In 1930 eviction disputes of the tenant unions. They increased from 130 accounted for 40 percent, while excessive rent in 1917 to 681 in 1921 and to 4,582 in 1927 disputes contributed 22 percent of the total. In with a record membership of 365,000 (table 1937 the respective figures were 58 and 18 per- 22 [omitted]), representing 25 percent of all cent. Even in 1943 with the number of disputes tenant farmers. The movement was most vigor- greatly diminished, 1,000 of 2,424 cases were ous in Niigata, Yamanashi, Hyogo, Okayama, eviction cases. Only 580 were excessive rent Kagawa, and Gumma prefectures and weakest cases (table 21 fomitted)). in Hokkaido, the northernmost prefectures of Two chief motives are listed in the attempts Honshu, and the prefectures of Kyushu. The of the landlords to evict individual tenants: (1) Japan Farmers' Union (Nippon Nomin Ku- the desire of the landlord to cultivate the land miai), organized in 1922, was the first national himself; (2) "the desire to rent the land to body of farmers largely created by tenant more easily contented tenants."" Change in unions. Political activity to achieve economic ownership, expiration of original agreements, aims received early recognition. In 1925 the and failure to pay the rent were other reasons Farmer-Labor Party (Nomin Rodoto) was for eviction disputes. formed. Although suppressed within three The landlord-tenant struggle gradually cen- hours of its birth, it carried on in various dis- tered on the right of the tenant to cultivate guises. With the help of the Japan Farmers' the land. The Japanese courts ruled that, since Union, the Farmer-Labor Party succeeded in the land belonged to the landlord, he was free electing many candidates to prefectural assem- to do with it as he pleased. The court injunc- blies where the tenant movement was strongest. tion became a weapon for eviction. The tenants Official repressions and internal dissensions protested by refusing to pay rent and taxes, by resulted in numerous splits and regroupings. In withdrawing their children from public schools the main, the tenant unions during their great- and setting up special tenant schools, and by est development were made up of three groups sabotage and violence. which represented politically the right wing, the center, and the left wing. Despite political differences, they agreed on such fundamentals The Tenant Union Movement as (a) legal recognition of the permanent right of the tenant to the land, (b) substitution of In the quiescent days of landlord-tenant rela- money rent for rent in kind, (c) reduction in tionships, a conflict was dealt with on an indi- rents, (d) development of cooperative buying vidual basis. In a rent dispute the tenant was and selling, (e) spread of education in the at a disadvantage. Any reduction depended villages, and (f) development of political ac- more upon his final inability to pay than upon tivity to influence local government and secure any equality of bargaining power. World War representation in prefectural and national gov- I marked the turning point in the development ernments. of tenant unions and the beginning of open Union membership was maintained through conflict between tenant and landlord. Both de- the late 1920s, although not at the peak of velopments arose because of the plight of the 1927. A decline began in 1934. By 1941 the tenants and the growing desire for a remedy. tenant union movement, around which the mili- The tenant unions became one of the principal tant part of the tenants rallied, was greatly means of effecting improvements. depleted. During World War II few tenant As disputes increased and issues sharpened, leaders were in evidence. Many unions dis- solved "voluntarily" in the name of national unity. Others were suppressed in the process of 25. Shiroshi Nasu, Aspects of Japanese Agri- eliminating groups and individuals suspected culture, p. 20. of "dangerous thoughts." Remaining farm orga- 82 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 nizations were (a) the few local tenant unions; having no desire to solve it at their own ex- (b) the government-supported Imperial Agri- pense, preferred the status quo of prewar days. cultural Association (Teikoku Nokai); (c) the Their attitude was expressed in the following ultrareactionary, officially organized Farmers' statement issued in 1926 when the tenant Patriotic Association; and (d) the Agricultural unions were spreading rapidly.26 Co-operative Association (Nogyokai). These organizations aimed to enlist the support of Th.rsn odto o itesi gi tenanitsiansmal armer for the g orts o cultural villages cannot be regarded with in- tenants and small farmers for the government's difrneWeaesfrngro hav agriultral rogam.difference. We are suffering from heavy agricultural program. " Other factors contributed to the tenant union taxation. Our farms are desolated. Tenancy decline in the 1930s. The agricultural depres- disputes are aggravated year by year. A sion was perhaps the most important. Like the catastrophe is close upon us. Is it not time to i r awaken and do something? industrial depression, it was not conducive to Remembering the splendid tradition of the spread of unionism. The growing nationalist our nation, with sovereign subjects forming movement and opposition to unions by certain one whole, and reflecting on the glorious groups of tenants on the ground of the unions' history of our national development in the radical tendencies was a factor. Furthermore, past, let us emphasize the harmonious rela- the frequent success of the unions in reducing tions between capital and labor, and espe- rents or preventing evictions resulted in a loss cially cultivate peace between landowners of members. With the successful termination and tenant farmers and thus contribute to of his own fight against the landlord, the indi- the development of our agricultural villages. vidual tenant saw no further need for the union. What sort of devils are they who furiously Tenant union activities did not go unchal- strike fire bells when there are no fires and lenged. The landlords with the cooperation of incite to a class struggle, provoking ani- district authorities, organized joint landlord- mosity against landowners by exciting tenant tenant unions. They came to be known as farmers? If these malicious designs go unre- "harmony" unions, or company unions. They stricted, what will become of our national aimed to benefit the membership through in- existence? We are determined, therefore, to creased output, better buying and selling prac- cooperate with those who hold the same and greater cooperation between landlord ideas, to arouse public opinion, and to estab- tices,lish a more suitable national policy. and tenant. They sought to improve the status of the tenant in an indirect way and, in turn, The statement does not admit that the ten- benefit the landlord. The regular unions were ants have just grievances, nor is there a sugges- dealing with the problem more directly. They tion on how to cope with the problem. Ten were concerned with the immediate needs and years later, with conditions worse than in 1926, interests of tenants. the landlords exhibited the same "standpatism." The "harmony" unions were organized with In response to government inquiries concern- moderate aims and without radical leaning and ing tenancy, the landlords recommended "the were not subject to the changes of the tenant stabilization of relations between landowners organized unions. They still had a membership and farmers by legislation regulating farming of 208,000 in 1943 as against the peak of right." These recommendations were vague and 279,000 in 1933, when tenant unions had al- noncommittal. They continued in the same view most disappeared. The war thinned out these in subsequent years and throughout the war. and by 1943 it brought about a concentration of Any government measures to improve the ten- 81 percent of the membership in two pre- ancy situation were made in the face of land- lord opposition. fectures, Yamagata and Fukushima. The real struggle against the tenant unions and their demands was carried on by the Japa- 26. Industrial and Labor Information (Geneva: nese Landowners' Association. They conceded International Labour Office, September 27, 1929), the seriousness of the tenancy problem but, pp. 492-93. Farm Tenancy in Japan 83 Government Tenant Policies provements in fertilization, seed selection, and development of new varieties produced results. The growing disputes resulted in the Concilia- A Japanese economist described the program tion of Tenancy Disputes Act of 1924. The act as "a chemical and botanical revolution" fos- sought prevention of disputes and arbitration tered by the government. With the govern- of existing conflicts. A farm tenancy officer was ment's concern for technical improvement of assigned to each prefectural government to farming, little attention was paid to the farmer's settle landlord-tenant difficulties before they be- welfare. Then in the 1930s the government be- came serious. came aware that something was amiss in rural The act stressed arbitration, not prevention. Japan and that remedial policies were in order. It provided for the simple handling of disputes But it dealt mostly with depression phenomena in court, avoiding the complicated procedure of such as the low price of agricultural products. civil law, for arbitration by a committee con- It avoided disturbing the established rural struc- posed of a judge and several citizens. Either ture. Measures proposed or enacted to im- party or both parties jointly could apply for prove the lot of the tenants fall into two groups: arbitration. Where parties to the dispute were (a) those concerning existing tenancy practices numerous, they could appoint a representative and (b) those concerning the raising of ten- or the court could order the appointment of ants to the status of peasant proprietors. such representation. The court itself could settle a dispute or refer it to an arbitration committee. The court was bound to appoint the committee if re- Measures to Improve Tenancy Practices quested by the disputants. This became the usual method. If the parties in dispute expressed Growing landlord-tenant conflicts caused the satisfaction with the committee's decision, it government to organize a Commission on Ten- became effective and was transferred to the ancy to make proposals and recommendations. court for formal approval. The court was bound In 1929 the government's Commission on So- to approve the decision unless it was "extraor- cial Policy recommended an agricultural ten- dinarily unjust." With court approval, the deci- ancy bill similar to proposals made in 1926 by sion acquired the force of a court ruling. the Commission on Tenancy. The bill was The arbitration of disputes has been one of introduced in the Diet in 1931, but it failed to the really successful legislative actions to deal overcome the opposition of the landlords and with the tenancy problem. While many settle- was never passed. The proposed law was con- ments are reached by direct negotiations be- structive and would have aided the tenants. tween the two parties, more than 60 percent The following is a summary of the proposed of the disputes are settled in accordance with legislation: provisions of the act. A settlement may call for (a) reduction in rent, (b) payment of rent by 1. To guarantee tenants the benefits of short- a certain date, (c) dismissal of court proceed- term improvements, the minimum duration ings upon payment bf the rent, (d) staying of a lease was to be five years. Unless six of eviction, (e) written or oral apology from months' notice was given, a tenant was to tenants to landlord or vice versa, and (f) divi- continue to work the land even after termi- sion between landlord and tenants of expenses nation of the lease. A tenant could not be incurred in the conflict. removed from the land during an eviction Such arbitration helped settle disputes. But appeal to the arbitration board. As much it did not cure underlying causes of conflicts as a year's notice was required when tenan- and discontent. Such problems require delving cies were concluded for an indefinite period. deeply into the economic and social conditions Such notice was to be given after the har- of the Japanese village. The government made vesting of the principal crop and before only feeble attempts to do so. It preferred to sowing began. promote an increase in agricultural production. 2. Upon termination of a lease, the landlord Experimental stations were established. Im- was to buy the standing crop, remunerate 84 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the tenant for farm improvements made sions an infringement of their rights as own- with the landlord's consent, and pay him an ers. They fought bitterly, and successfully, indemnity for surrendering the right of ten- against any basic change. ancy to the land. The indemnity was not to exceed one year's rent. 3. Tenancies were also to be terminated by the Measures to Reduce Tenancy landlord when no rent had been paid for a year or when a sum amounting to a year's The direct way of abolishing tenancy is to raise rent had not been paid in two years or when tenants to the status of land proprietors. The any portion of the rent had not been paid in Japanese government's attempts along this line three years. Two months' notice demanding began on a very small scale in 1922. In the four payment was to be given. If nonpayment years that followed, government loans to ten- was deliberate, two months' notice might ants for this purpose amounted to Y14 million terminate the tenancy. Against such de- with interest ranging from 3 to 5 percent. A mand for payment or such notice, the ten- loan was not to exceed =Y600 and was to be ant might appeal to the arbitration board redeemed in annual installments over a period while tenancy continued. If the landlord of fifteen to twenty years. The area of land to contemplated the sale of land, he was re- be purchased by tenants was to average one- quired to give a month's notice to the ten- half acre. ant and allow him the right of preemption. Results were not impressive. The total 4. The tenant might claim a temporary reduc- amount of land purchased by tenants during tion in rent on the ground of poor harvest. 1922-25 was estimated at 17,000 acres. The If a request for rent reduction was received, program was expanded in 1926. A total of Y468 the landlord was required to inspect the million was to be advanced during the next crops fifteen days before harvesting began. twenty-five years at a 3.5 percent interest rate. If either party objected to this method, in- Annual repayments were expected not to exceed spection was to be made by a public offi- the usual amount of rent. The plan provided cial or in a manner determined by a tenancy for compulsory collection of the annual pay- committee. The bill was tabled in the House ments. In the event of nonpayment, the land of Peers. would revert to the "rural cash office," a gov- In 1937 a new bill sought to curb the arbi- ernment agency in charge of financing the trary manner in which landlords terminated scheme. A Japanese economist declared, "pro- leases. It was enacted on April 2, 1938, as the vision exists for an entire or partial exemption Agricultural Land Adjustment Act. But as ap- of annual payments and for extension of the proved it did not provide the tenants with period of redemption if the lands have become needed relief and protection. Landlords could desolate or the amount of crops is decreased be compelled to negotiate with tenants for the through unavoidable causes."27 It was thought, sale of the land but could not be requested to therefore, that nonpayment cases would be sell the land. A landlord could not evict a ten- few. ant unless sufficient reason was given, but the Even this enlarged fund was not adequate to broad interpretation of "sufficient reason" did carry on land purchases on a large scale. At pre- not strengthen the position of the tenant with vailing land prices, a total of only 287,000 acres respect to leases. could be acquired, or less than 5 percent of the . entire acreage rented by tenants. Furthermore, No legislation had yet been enacted in Japan tie aca ned by tenan Ftme, redes te blace5 eail weghe in the plan contained no provision compelling to redress the balance so heavily weighted in .adod .opr ihsm o hi ad to landlords to part with some of their land. A favor of the landlords. Because of the character Japanese writer remarked, "The present organi- of Japanese tenancy practices, any law regu- zation for creating and maintaining peasant- lating landlord-tenant relations had to be based on a downward revision of rents, payment of 27. S. Kawada, "The Establishment and Mainte- rent in cash rather than kind, and greater se- nance of Peasant Farms," Kyoto University Economic curity of tenure. Landlords saw in such provi- Review (July 1, 1923), p. 81. Farm Tenancy in Japan 85 proprietors is very small in scale, and the meth- later years the prefecture accounted for more ods adopted for its execution are very luke- than 50 percent of all the purchased land (table warm."2' This mild program had to overcome 23 [omitted] ). severe opposition on the ground that interest Considering the small beginnings of 1922- rates would tend to undermine the money 25, the annual average purchase of 23,000 market and that government sponsorship of acres subsequently would indicate considerable this plan would involve it in serious disputes progress. But the progress was more apparent with tenants. than real. A century would have been needed The idea of enabling tenants to become inde- to acquire the land rented by full tenants alone pendent farmers was sound. But the process and more than two centuries to establish farm would take centuries under such a program. ownership on all tenanted land. The 175,000 The government was aware of this. With tenants who supposedly became owners or part agrarian unrest growing; another plan on a owners are reflected to a small degree in Japa- larger scale was proposed in 1932. This was nese statistics of the principal categories of embodied in a peasant proprietor's agricultural farmers. Between 1926 and 1936, part owners land bill, which did not pass. The bill provided increased from 2,314,000 to 2,349,000. But the for a bond issue in payment for the purchased number of owner cultivators remained un- land to be repaid by tenants in whose behalf changed. More significant, the number of ten- land was acquired. The amount of bonds issued ants increased from 1,509,000 to 1,518,000. in any one year could not exceed Y80 million During 1931-36 when the amount of land pur- or a total of Y2,800 million in the course of chased was largest and the greatest number of the thirty-five-year period during which the tenants aided, the owner cultivators declined scheme was to operate. The plan intended to by 25,000 and part owners by 35,000. Tenants convert 44,000 acres of rented land into pro- increased by 23,000. prietors' farms each year. It sought to turn Official data showing that 175,000 tenants over 1,543,000 acres to tenants in thirty-five (1926-36) were aided in becoming peasant years in addition to the 287,000 acres to be pur- proprietors cannot be accepted at face value. chased under the twenty-five-year program. A Tenant movement into higher categories can- total of 1,830,000 acres or 30 percent of the not be determined with certainty. It must have land farmed by tenants was expected to become been counterbalanced by a greater movement of their own property. peasant proprietors into the tenancy class. Poli- The bill provoked a great deal of criticism cies to convert tenants into owner cultivators on the ground that it lacked effective provisions are futile if the latter are permitted to lose their to fix the purchase price of agricultural land, land and become tenants. that it carried no provision for compulsory sale The inadequacy of the 1926 program was of arable land, that it should have been ac- apparent to those who supported the tenants. companied or preceded by effective regulation The farmers were aided by the dominant politi- of tenancy practices, and that it was a device cal parties. When the military gave support, to enable landowners to dispose of land that the agrarian problem, to quote ex-Premier Saito, was a burden to them.29 immediately "caught fire." Rural discontent was The only plan in operation through 1936 partly responsible for the attempted assassina- was the one inaugurated in 1926. The govern- tion of Premier Hamaguchi on November 14, ment assisted 175,000 tenants in the purchase 1930, resulting in his death a few months later. of 250,000 acres of land through the extension The motives behind the subsequent bewilder- of Y148 million in loans. Hokkaido was the ing series of assassinations of Japan's leading principal center of this activity. During the political figures" were tinged by a combination of military and agrarian interests. 28. Yoshinosuke Yagi, "The Current Land Prob- lem and the Establishment of Peasant Proprietorship," 30. Inouye, Minister of Finance, was murdered on Kyoto University Economic Review (December February 9, 1932; Dan, managing director of the 1936),p. 72. vast Mitsui interest, on March 5, 1932; and Premier 29. Ibid., p. 73. Inoukai on May 15, 1932. 86 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Agrarian reform became the watchword of of the farmer for economic rehabilitation every important group in the 1930s. The army through his own efforts," a former minister of wanted contented and peaceful villages. Close finance said. But tenants could not raise their ties bound the army and agriculture and, as level by themselves. Drastic concessions by land General Araki stated, "the agricultural popula- owners and large state expenditures were tion constitutes Japan's first line of defense." needed. These would have caused a change in The manufacturing interests realized that they agrarian relations and a reduction in the huge were suffering from the sharp decline in the military outlays of the 1930s. Unwilling to risk farmers' purchasing power. They approved of either, the government's efforts to aid tenants agricultural reform because they wanted to dis- were of little practical significance. pel the belief that industrial progress had been achieved at the expense of agriculture. The pro- fessional class also welcomed reform. The indus- Factors Underlying Land Reform trial workers did, too, hoping that an improved economic status for farmers would reduce the It remained for a defeated Japan to enact the flow of cheap labor to the cities. Land Reform Law. The provisions of the law, Numerous programs were prepared. A their application, and their effects on Japan's twenty-five-year plan was inaugurated in 1937 farm economy will be the subject of another to assist tenants in becoming peasant pro- report. Many problems were considered in de- prietors. The program was less ambitious than might have been expected. It was on a smaller The land shortage makes the complete eradi- scale than the contemplated 1932 plan in terms Thladsotgmketecmpterdi scalethn the mont atoed s2pen an te cation of tenancy unlikely. The tenant's position of tcould be improved by (a) assisting him to be- 1,021,000 acres to be purchased. Loans to come owner of the land he tills and (b) im- farmers were made at an interest rate of 3.2 proving the tenant status without altering percent to be repaid in installments not exceed- existing titles. Only sustained action in these ing current rates of rent. This program, like directions is likely to result in a more adequate the two preceding, evaded the fundamental e tshare of agricultural income for the people who evils of the Japanese land system. till the land. The statistical results are presented in table 23 [omitted]. From 1937 through 1943 less land was purchased and a smaller number of tenants were affected than in the seven years Land Ownership among Tenants preceding. An unprecedented spurt of activity occurred during 1944. The tenants assisted in The value of a reform that would institute land purchase cannot be accounted for by peasant proprietorship cannot be denied. The changes in the number of owner cultivators fundamental cause of landlord-tenant disputes part owners, and tenants. The farmers' accumu- is the dependency of two sets of people on one lation of cash and the difficulty many owners piece of land and the unequal returns they experienced to keep the land in cultivation un- share. Once tenants are converted into owners, doubtedly aided the last minute increase in the conflicts of interests would disappear. The acquired acreage. In war as in peace, tenancy national economy and social policy would be was a principal social and economic problem of improved by peasant land ownership in place of Japanese agriculture. pauperized tenancy. Ownership is the biggest The fact that the Japanese government failed asset in the development and maintenance of to deal constructively with the problem does the productive power of the land. The Japanese not mean that tenancy practices cannot be im- are aware of the benefits of peasant proprietor- proved. The government emphasized such in- ship as indicated by the following statement: tangibles as self-help and spiritual regeneration "Natural attachment of the newly established and forgot badly needed subsidies and fair land peasant-proprietors for their own land has be- prices. "The most important need of the village come considerably stronger. They now manure is not a state subsidy but initiative on the part more plentifully and improve their land more Farm Tenancy in Japan 87 carefully than before and spare no effort to nation provisions where landowners did not increase its productive power and improve the wish to sell. Compulsory sale has been adopted quality of its products. In many cases produc- by other countries. It was introduced in Great tion has actually increased."3 A defeated Japan Britain to speed tenancy reform. is sorely in need of maximum soil productivity. The amount of land acquired from the land- The acquisition of land by most Japanese ten- lords for resale to tenants depends largely upon ants therefore is most desirable. The real prob- the extent of the program. If complete aboli- lems are: Who should make the acquisition, tion of tenancy is desired, it is necessary to how much land should be acquired, and under purchase 2,600,000 acres leased by tenants who what terms should a tenant obtain title to the own no land and 3,800,000 acres leased by land. part owners and part tenants, or a total of Normally the economic position of the Japa- 6,400,000 acres. nese farmer does not permit him to buy land. Compulsory sale of every acre of tenanted The state must purchase land for resale to the land is neither feasible nor desirable. Many farmer or provide credit to permit the tenant landlords own small holdings rented out to to buy. The price of land must not be high, tenants. They would request the right to culti- and it must be fixed by the national govern- vate some of their land to become peasant ment. If the tenant and not the state were to proprietors. There is no valid reason why such deal with the landlord, he might be required to requests should not be granted. Moreover, pur- pay the fixed price plus whatever the landlord chase of every acre of tenanted land would create asked. Competition for land is too keen to ex- a tenantless Japan. This is not desirable for pect tenant or landlord to abide by the official economic and social reasons. A certain amount price. Such disregard would nullify the main of tenancy, with tenant rights well protected, purpose of land reform. The national govern- is bound to persist as a form of land tenure. ment, therefore, must acquire the land from Legal prohibition of all tenancy, therefore, the landlords. would not be in the interests of a flexible social Moreover, individual negotiations between structure in rural Japan. tenant and landlord in Japanese villages would The amount of land to be purchased for delay completion of the task beyond the de- resale to tenants must be determined on the sirable period. Landlord obstructionism by de- assumption that the furthering of land owner- laying tactics would be the rule. Only central ship among tenants would not preclude culti- government action, setting purchase date and vation of some land by tenants. It is difficult to price, would insure transfer in good time. The determine precisely how much land might be national government, through central agencies required in each case. If the size of individual such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry farms and the total amount of farmland an and the Ministry of Finance, should assume the individual landowner may own is limited to task of acquiring the land in behalf of the ten- 3 cho (7.5 acres), approximately four-fifths or ants. Local agencies could help distribute the over 5 million acres would be available for land among tenants. Limited to this role, un- government purchase resale. Over one million sympathetic agricultural associations would find acres would remain for those remaining as it hard to hinder the reform. tenants. Landlords are unwilling to part with the Price is the crucial element in government land except at their own price. This makes purchase of land. It could bring failure to an otherwise well-planned program. A Japanese compulsory sale of land necessary for an effec- oterwise wel-panesprogra A J ae riv reormproram Falur ofJapnes efort writer noted that a successful plan to make tive reform program. Failure of Japanese efforts owners out of tenants must be based on a rea- since 1922 can be traced to the lack of condem- sonable price for peasant farmland.32 High prices have been the main reason for the slow 31. Yoshinosuke Yagi, op. cit., p. 78; quotation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report. July 1935, on the results of the establishment of 32. S. Kawada, "The Establishment and Mainte- peasant proprietorship. nance of Peasant Farms," p. 95. 88 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 development of peasant proprietorship in Japan get rid of undesirable lands, and to maintain and other countries. Since 1922 the price of the tenant rent and land value."37 If a land re- land in establishing peasant proprietorship was form program was to benefit by past mistakes of determined by free contract. The only legal the old ones, the critics pointed out, the gov- limitation was that "the purchasing price of ernment should not fix prices on the basis of land should not exceed the standard price:` prevailing rents. The price of land should be and the usual price of the locality in which the determined in accordance with its productive land is situated."4 The authorities aimed to pre- value, they suggested. The critics asked that vent a further rise in prices. Even if they suc- landowners be compelled to sell land on the ceeded, and tenants bought land in accordance basis of reduced rentals. The market price of with official stipulation, the price was too high. land should be eliminated if the reform is to Two related factors are involved. First, the accomplish its purpose. Resale of land to ten- "standard price" and the "usual price of lo- ants should include (a) small annual payments, cality" are based on prevailing exorbitant (b) loans at low interest rates, (c) long period tenant rents. "As the present farm rent is gen- of repayment, and (d) state imposition of re- erally regarded as too high, the standard price striction upon utilization and disposition of the worked out in this way cannot but be unduly acquired land pending the full redemption of high."35 Second, keen competition for land is the loan. most important in determining high rent and Terms of sales should place the land securely the high land prices in Japan. This results in in the hands of the tenants. If the sales plan a high market price ("the usual price of lo- required an appreciable initial payment or a cality") considerably above the productive value short period of amortization, the new owners (capitalized earning power) of the land."" would have only a tenuous hold on the land. The adverse effect of high land prices on a The new owner who feared foreclosure would tenant-to-owner program was understood and have an instability of tenure similar to that of criticized in Japanese circles outside the gov- tenants. The owner who paid too high a pro- ernment. They maintained that "no success portion of his income to meet payments on his would be possible under such circumstances- newly acquired land would be in the same posi- that the plan was created to help landowners to tion as a tenant who paid too high a proportion of his farm income as rent. The 1926 program illustrated this fact. The 33 annual payment on the principal was nor to 33. Determined by finding the capital value of the the annual rnt prir to n pr land by dividing the farm rent minus the land tax exceed the annual rent prior to the land pur- land surtax, and similar local rates by a certain speci- chase. The new small holder had to supplement fled interest rate. this usually heavy charge by paying interest on 34. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, May 21, the loan (at a low rate to be sure) and a land 19236 sechosukrdi eo1. cit., p. 8. tax and other imposts not required of a tenant. 36. Shiroshi Nasu, in Aspects of Japanese Agri- Land ownership under such conditions failed to culture, pp. 129-30, states, "The actual price of land improve the low economic status of the farmer. is usually higher than the rationalized land value Fixed annual payments have helped nullify calculated from the capitalization of profit. Among efforts of farmers to achieve permanent owner- the reasons may be mentioned the social prestige at- tached to land ownership and the instinctive desire ship. They have thereby increased tenancy of the farmer to possess more land. The largest rather than diminished it. A land ownership factor in determining the value of land is, however, plan should provide flexible payments to allow the keen competition for acquisition of use of land, for variations in crop yields and in prices re- especially in a densely populated country like Japan. . f Thus the tenant farmer sometimes does not hesitate ceived for agricultural products. to propose an exceptionally high land rent at the In countries where land reform programs expense of impairing his earnings from labor and have been carried out, conditions for payment other disbursements. Hence the comparatively high net revenue of the land owner. The equivalent of the capitalization of this revenue becomes the mini- mum price of the land. Usually, however, the actual 37. S. Kawada, "The Establishment and Mainte- price is considerably higher." nance of Peasant Farms," p. 98. Farm Tenancy in Japan 89 vary. They usually include long terms of amorti- ated by tenants. Some tenancy is bound to de- zation, large government loans at low interest velop even if all tenants and part tenants of rates, and deferment of payments to enable the Japan became owners. The factors leading to it new owner to build up a reserve and strengthen have been summarized by Lossing Buck as him in his new enterprise. The Japanese gov- follows: ernment considered the factors of successful T . foreign experience and are applying them with opportunities causes many owners to rent modifications in the new agrarian reform pro- their farms and move to the city. A certain gram. amount of renting results inevitably from Once tenants receive the purchase contract r from fro th goernent aieo an aus hanges to other business, retirement, ill- from the government, a rise of land values ness, or death. Such renting seems desirable might induce them to pay off the loan and sell because it greatly aids individuals in these all or part of the land at a profit. Nonfarmers transitional periods. A man cannot always would take ownership. Provision should be dispose of his land as soon as he changes made against this danger in any land reform from farming to another business. Division plan. The Japanese government realizes that, of land between brothers may make it desir- to prevent such an occurrence, final payment able for one brother to rent his share to an- should not be receivable until the end of the abler brother tre hi sar tan - originally fixed amortization period, or the othe.brothe ir land , again, right to dispose of the property before the end sons such as attachment to an old homestead of the amortization period should be prohibited. and to the Community and so prefer to rent Exceptions to this rule will be at the discretion rather than to sell. Farmers may be so limited of the government. in ability that they cannot completely man- Other legal limitations on the rights of in ab that they cann possession of a farm acquired through the as- sistance of the state are necessary if the new Other reasons may be cited in support of owner is to be firmly established on the land. renting land as against the idea of limiting land The new owner should carry on a type of farm- cultivation to owner cultivators only. A farmer ing that will maintain the fertility of the soil. might find himself with an insufficient amount He should not sublet or sell any part of the of family labor to properly cultivate all the land holding nor transfer his holdings freely by will he owns while another farmer would have ex- to anyone but a natural heir. If he attempted cess of labor in terms of land he actually tills. to do so, the state should have the right to re- The renting of an additional piece of land sume possession, buying the property at its would meet the economic needs of the two. original cost and reimbursing the occupant for Some farmers may prefer not to invest in a any improvements he made. Or the owner could title but utilize their capital for the purpose of be given the right to dispose of his equity sub- cultivating a much larger acreage by renting ject to state approval of the incoming purchaser. rather than buying land. Perhaps the most tell- The former tenant should not privately mort- ing factor is that given favorable tenancy con- gage the holding until he has repaid his debt ditions, many Japanese farmers would prefer to the state. His credit should be restricted so tenancy to ownership. that his holding will not be seized to recover Agrarian reform also should consider revi- a personal debt. Except for such restrictions, sion of the centuries-old tenancy practices. Even the new owner should enjoy all rights and privi- the best tenancy legislation may be ineffective leges of landowners free from all obligations unless the bargaining power of the tenant is to the state. improved. Bargaining equality is difficult to achieve so long as demand for land is greater than supply. Improvement of Tenancy Practices The tenants' economic position could be im- proved by these provisions: (a) long-term Despite any attempt to spread ownership, a written leases, terminable by either party only great deal of land in Japan will be still oper- after due notice is given as stipulated in the 90 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 agreement; (b) fair rentals payable in cash; practices called for a drastic revision in rents. (c) payment for inconvenience or loss sustained Equitable rent is difficult to determine in by the other party when lease is terminated Japan. Probably the best method of determining without cause; (d) limited tenant payments a fair rental is to base it upon (a) the produc- during emergencies such as serious crop failures tive value of the land and (b) contributions or sudden fall of prices; (e) landlord and ten- made by each party in the way of supplies, ant sharing some of the expenses of raising equipment, taxes, and services. By listing in- crops (fertilizer, for instance); (f) removable vestments and farm operating expenses and by improvements made by the tenant should be assigning proper values to each, the relative removed by him at the termination of the lease i ncnh (compensation should be paid for improve- importance of the contributions of each can be ments which the tenant cannot remove, such as fairly well estimated. The division of income soil and irrigation improvements); (g) meas- can then be calculated. Rents would probably ures leading to the increase of soil productivity, half d epen d upotndividual cases e and (h) cheap credit, price stabilization, and half, depending upon individual cases. andp(h)echeacrei pciciest n ad The benefits to tenants from such a reduc- improved marketing facilities.as . tion are evident. Prospect of a much-reduced These elements of sound tenancy practices income will force many small landowners to were practically unknown in Japan. Most rental work their own land or hire labor. This will contracts or leases have been oral. Terms are often vague and incomplete, leaving many i- displace a number of tenants who have no ofte vaue ad mompete,leaing anyim- alternative occupations. Rent reduction will also portant items dependent upon the uncertainties aueadie in an v e utor effects of memory or later discussions. A written lease cause a decline in land value, a salutory effect. is needed with terms completely stated and Nonfarmers will not be tempted to invest clearly understood by both tenant and landlord money in land at a time of declining land before signing. A long-term written lease, which prices and uncertain returns. Land purchase by provides for equitable rental and gives the tenants might be facilitated thereby. tenant security and stability on the land he i From the tenant's point of view, cash rent farms, can improve his economic status. Im- is a welcome departure from payment in kind. proved management also is important. A lease The majority of Japanese tenants prefer pay- that gives the tenant stable and secure righ~ts ments of a fixed cash rental per unit of paddy thao g the tforaeinte t erand se e ris field as is done in payment for upland fields. tnourhe and to for dn te ofst temelwoll With rent reduced, the tenant could bear the encourage him to plan for the best develop- risk of price and production changes. If the Meturof then m tenant entered into a sliding-scale contract with Measures taken by the Japanese government the landlord, the two would share equitably in since 1945 have caused a drastic reduction in the benefit of risin frpre equity as rent. Bt tereis o asurace hatthepreent the benefits of rising farm prices. Equity also rents. But there is no assurance that the present would prevail when prices fell to low levels. provision will continue when the food crisis is This plan provides a method by which cash past. High rentals have been an important rentals are based upon prices received by the factor in causing the difficult landlord-tenant tenant for his produce. relationship and the poverty of the tenant. The A tenant farmer whose lease contains re- rent absorbed too much of the farm income for f poons wo be onclined"to the enat toopeate conmicaly.form" provisions would be more inclined to the tenant to operate economically. buy equipment, keep buildings in good condi- The rental was based upon the strong bar- tion, manure more plentifully, and otherwise gaining position of the landlord growing out work his land more carefully than before. He of intense competition for the relatively small would spare no effort to increase its productive cultivated area. Any improvement in tenancy power and improve the quality of its products. Experience of foreign countries, notably that of Britain, shows that many a farmer would 38. These principles, incorporated in many pro- rather rent than buy land if he is given a good grams for improved tenancy practices, are summed up d in: Report of the Presidents' Committee, "Farm lease. Equity in the land could be acquired Tenancy," (Washington, February 1937). without owning it, leaving capital free for oper- Farin Tenancy in Japan 91 ating expenses or major improvements rather ploiting the available arable land fully. This is than invested in a land title. The majority of indicated by the high yields. The labor force Japanese tenants, as revealed by investigation, used to maintain a maximum production is will choose land ownership. But some might greater than required. A more economic utili- elect to remain tenants under the improved zation of agricultural resources in terms of land, tenancy practices instituted by the Japanese labor, and equipment would add only to the government. Agrarian reform in Japan should surplus labor reserve. This would create the proceed simultaneously to improve the tenants' need for alternative occupations which the status while also extending ownership among farm cannot provide. Therefore, it is important tenants. to alleviate the Japanese problem of "many people on little land" not only through agrarian reform but also through greater industrializa- Limitations of Partial or tion and expansion of commerce and other measures intended to absorb and control the surplus rural population. The principal criterion of agrarian reform is the economic welfare of the Japanese peasantry. With improved tenancy practices and extended Annex 1. Types of Written Agreements land ownership among tenants, economic bene- fits are great. The large proportion of the crop Tenant's request for land which the tenant previously has been required to deliver to the landlord would be retained for Location of the tenanted land ............. his own consumption or for sale. His increased Number of plot of land sought ............. purchasing power will benefit industry, the Aza (buraku)" . ..................... trades, and professions. However, the improved Village (Yamagata prefecture) .......... economic condition of the tenants should not Gunun. be overestimated since there is not enough Acreage of the tenant land ................ arable land in Japan for the large farm popu- Tan . . . . . . . Se . . . . . . . Bu ..4...... lation. Land value (yen) .................... If all cultivated land of Japan were equally Rent paid in rice (bales-to be wrapped distributed, the average holding would amount twice; each bale containing four "to"44 of to 2.5 acres. This is nearly 2 acres short of an rice) ...................... ...... estimated profitable acreage. In suburban dis- Having not enough land to cultivate, I earn- tricts where truck farming is possible, the culti- Havin nt eough land a en- vation of 2 or 3 acres of land might produce an income large enough to support a farm family; tioned above, as well as shown in the attached in most districts, however, where farmers earn map from the ......th year of Taisho Era.`5 their living primarily in rice, other grains, vege- If you grant my request, I shall never fail to pay tables, and mulberries, such small tracts will hardly support a family. The lot of the tenants, as tenants, would be 39. Aza-political term for buraku. A buraku is improved if the available acreage were large a social-economic unit consisting of about twenty households. One aza may include one or more bu- enough to enable them to double or triple their raku. rented holdings. Acreage cannot be materially 40. Gun-county unit. increased in Japan, unless the Japanese farm 41. One tan-0.245 of an acre or 1/10th of a cho. population declines sharply in numbers. 42. One se-0.0245 of an acre or 1/10th of a Changes in the Japanese agricultural econ- tan. omy through land reform will not ease the 43. One bu-0.000816 of an acre or 1/30th of pressure on the land to any considerable degree. a se44. One to-0.5119 U.S. bushels or 0.1 koku. Given the present cropping system, land con- 45. Taisho Era-from July 31, 1912, to Decem- figuration, and equipment, Japan has been ex- ber 25, 1926. 92 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 rent in rice of superior quality on or before discount rate of rent paid in rice shall be the end of November of every year. If the pay- determined by mutual negotiation. ment is late, my guarantor will surely pay in 3. If tenancy is terminated at the will of the my place, so that you may not suffer any loss tenant before the agreement expires, the or trouble through this delay. When using your tenant must inform the landlord to that land, I swear to you that I shall never trespass effect during the period from August to its boundary as specified in the map. You may October in order to get his consent. The at any time recover your land if you need it. I land shall be recovered in January of the will sign this document for future reference: following year. Dated. in the. th year of Taisho 4. If the agreement is terminated at will by Name and address of te. ..S el. o a the landowner, the tenant must be notified Name and address of guarantor . . . . (Seal) of the contemplated action three months in Amendaddress of guaraandownr .......(advance. The landlord may recover the land Address of the land owne r. .... Gu .... by paying a penalty which has been previ- No. Aza . ... Village .. . . Gun . . . . ously and properly determined by the two His name. .Yamagata prefecture . . . . parties. The termination of the lease will take place only after the harvesting of Outline of tenancy contract crops. 5. The use of the land for purposes other than Location of the tenanted land ............. those specified or the transfer of the right No. ............... Aza ............... of using the land to a third person is not Village (Kanagawa prefecture) ....... permitted unless with permission of the G un ............................. landlord. Paddy field ...... tan . ... se . ... bu . ... 6. All taxes or public imposts on the tenant Upland field ..... tan . . . . se . . . . bu . . . . land shall be borne by the landowner and Paddy field ..... . tan . ... se ... . bu .. .. other expenses by the tenant. Total Pledging you to abide by the contract as Upland field ..... tan . . .. se . . . . bu . . . . mentioned above, I will sign the document for . . future reference. Rent paid in rice per annum Unpolished rice ...................... Dated ....... in the ....... year of Taisho koku ..... to ..... sho ..... go ..... Name and address of the tenant (seal) Terms of tenancy Name and address of the guarantor (seal) Five years: From (month) Name and address of the guarantor (seal) in the . . . . th year of Taisho Name and address of the landowner To (month) in the . .. th year of Taisho Complete tenancy contract Terms of tenancy may be extended upon expiration by mutual agreement. Revenue 1. Tenancy begins on April 1 of every year and Stamp (seal) 1Tenasn begins3 on Aprl 1fevy year ae Location: No. 157, Tate aza, Shiki machi, ends on March 31 of the next year. Rice Kitaadachi gun, Saitama prefecture. to be paid as rent shall be of B class, ex- Area: Paddy field 1 tan and 3 bu. amined, and delivered to the place desig- Rent: Paid in rice 2 bales (each containing nated by you on or before December 25 of 4 "to") and 2 "to" 1 "sho." I rent your above every year. land under the contract as follows: 2. If there should be an unforeseen decrease in harvest caused by inevitable calamities, a 1. The above rent should be paid before De- cember 20 every year. 2. The term of tenancy is from January 20 46. A Japanese name on a formal document is until January 20 next year. But, prior to accompanied by the seal of the individual. the expiration of this term, if neither of Trial Balance in Japan 93 the parties proposes the dissolution of the 12. If the tenant does not remove his farm contracts, it may continue for another year. equipment or other tools and objects im- 3. Tenant cannot transfer the lease nor sub- mediately when the time comes for the lease the land nor have the land cultivated tenant to return the land, the landowner by others. can appropriate them or get others to re- 4. Landowner can, at any time he desires, re- move them at the expense of the tenant. cover the tenant land regardless of the In such event the tenant cannot raise any tenant's circumstances. The tenant cannot objections, and also no objection will be object. made even if these objects are disposed of 5. When payment is delayed, both guarantor by the landowner. and tenant should pay the rent jointly. 13. When the time comes for the tenant to re- 6. Such acts as the change of footpaths be- turn the land to the landowner, the tenant tween paddy fields or transformation of the cannot ask the landowner for any com- land or transferring the soil of the field pensation. are prohibited. 14. If the tenant breaks the contract, it will 7. It is agreed that inside of the embankment lapse without notification or any other pro- the medium rice maturing plants must be ceedings. cultivated, and early rice maturing plants 15. In case the payment of rent is delayed, the must be cultivated outside of the embank- landowner can legally compel him to make ment. If the tenant does not carry out these the payment. terms, the rent must be paid as mentioned 16. If the landowner transfers the land to an- regardless of the tenant's difficulties. other tenant, this contract will lapse auto- 8. Bales must be wrapped carefully as speci- matically. fied. 9. The rice for rent must be prepared care- Pledging you to abide by the above contract, I fully, never containing green or smashed will sign my name. or moist rice, etc. The rice must be dry. Even the unwrapped rice must be of the Dated January 21 in the thirteenth year of same quality. Showa (1938) 10. Even if the rent is less than 4 "to" but Tenant: No. 2720, Shiki machi, Kitaadachi more than 2 "to," the tenant must deliver gun, Saitama prefecture, Kensaburo Mi- it to the landlord wrapped in a bale. kami (seal) 11. Regardless of tenant's circumstances, if the Guarantor: No. 2882, Shiki machi, Kitaada- total harvest is less than the specified rent, chi gun, Saitama prefecture, Tokuiiro the tenant cannot request any reduction in Nagashima (seal) rent. Landowner: Mr. Nishikawa 9. Trial Balance in Japan The special interest of this piece is that Ladejinsky undertook in it a broad assessment of the accomplishments of the occupation authorities, as he viewed these toward the end of 1948. In the light of the Allied Powers' aims for postwar Japan, Ladejinsky examined the occupation's programs and accomplishments in the fields of demilitarization, the adoption of a new constitution, the dissolution of holding companies, the enactment of antimonopoly legislation, the reconstruction of the labor movement, and educational as well as agrarian reforms. Concluding that "the military occupation as we have known it need not continue much longer," Ladejinsky envisioned a continuing need for a very different kind of occupation 94 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 "made up primarily of experts, advisers and teachers." Some years later this sort of thing would be called the Point IV program of technical assistance. The concluding paragraphs of the article are presented here. This article is excerpted by permission from Foreign Affairs, October 1948. Copyright 1948 by Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. SUCH ARE THE ATTEMPTS to translate the aims economic climate is favorable, the reforms may of the occupation into reality. It is the tale of not be wholeheartedly accepted. And here we a moderate middle-class revolution, designed touch on a crucial problem. In the past the to create a stable system of capitalistic de- keynote of government and society was authori- mocracy. The changes that have been made have tarianism. The spirit of Japanese culture has so loosened the fetters that held the Japanese been communal and disciplinary. Tradition and people that reactionary forces would find it group opinion, not individual initiative, have difficult to tighten them again. The American been the mainsprings of Japanese behavior. occupation has rendered an historical service in There is no reason to believe that the cake of daring to give new direction to the economic custom is so hard that it cannot be broken, for and political arrangements of the defeated the Japanese were amenable to indoctrination country. Such reforms as the widespread owner- in other times and are more open to it now. ship of land, the recognition of the right of The overwhelming defeat shook the established labor to economic security, and the measures political and social order to its foundations and for the control of disease and improvement of shattered many illusions, chief among them the public health so effectively carried on by the belief in the unique mission of the Japanese Public Health and Welfare Section of SCAP people. The fact is that the Japanese are a prac- have given tangible evidence to the common tical and imitative people, and large groups are people of Japan that we are actively espousing willing to follow a set of principles used by the a new way of life and not merely opposing the country which is apparently the most successful old. It is this that distinguishes the American in the world. But though the balance of forces occupation of Japan from the occupation of in Japan's society after three years of the occu- other defeated countries by victors in wars, pation favors the sloughing off of the worst past and present. excrescences of Japanese feudal life, the Japa- The road upon which the occupation has nese people have not themselves fought for set the Japanese is sound and promising, and these democratic reforms. They have been a the Japanese have gone a considerable distance gift. The Japanese can make them their own along it in the last three years. But a generation only by using them. The processes of democracy must pass before we can know how deeply its are not simple, and the Japanese cannot hope spirit has been accepted and how lasting its to employ them successfully without much effects will be on Japan. The economic rehabili- further guidance. But the military occupation tation of Japan is essential to the strengthening as we have known it need not continue much of the social reforms introduced by the occupa- longer. If the Allied Powers are satisfied that tion. There must be a degree of economic well- the military structure of Japan has been dis- being at least as great as was possible under mantled (and there is no doubt that it has the old r6gime. The reforms do not inhibit the been), if the auxiliary military guarantees for fullest utilization of Japanese labor, managerial the future have been fully secured, and if, as skill, and indigenous natural resources; nor are has been sufficiently demonstrated, the purely they of a kind which would prevent extension police problems are small and the overt opposi- of American credits sufficient to cover imports tion negligible, then there is no reason why the of raw materials and the cost of new capital military occupation in its present form and equipment as well as the investment of foreign extent cannot be terminated shortly. capital. What will be needed is an occupation which But we must face the fact that, even if the emphasizes training in running the newly estab- The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations 95 lished institutions. Now that we have taken the meaning imparted to them by SCAP constitute Japanese nation in tow, we cannot abruptly set a test of the universality of certain Western it adrift; the main effort of education has only precepts. The future of Japan as a useful mem- just begun. This is a task for an occupation ber of the society of nations depends upon made up primarily of experts, advisers, and America's determination to continue aid and teachers. American aims in Japan and the novel counsel to the Japanese. 10. The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations This was the first of three field studies Ladejinsky carried out for the Joint (U.S. and China) Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR), typical in the logical nature of its organization and in the thoroughness of its execution. He exhibits fairness in weighing landlord com- plaints about the manner in which rents have been adjudicated and gives an immediate action response to the inadequacy of tenant representation on local land commissions. Concerning this, T. H. Shen of the JCRR wrote the editor as follows: "He (Ladejinsky) strongly recommended re-organization of the committees after the pattern of the Japanese land commissions where the tenant farmers accounted for at least one-half the total membership. The Government approved his proposal and put a new provision for this re-organization in the Rent Reduction Law on May 25, 1951, which stipulated that tenant membership should not be less than one-half of the total committee membership." In the opinion of Raymond Moyer, then a U.S. member of the JCRR, this proved to be a major contribution to the reform in Taiwan. This paper took the form of a September 1949 memorandum addressed to Chiang Mon-Lin, then chairman of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction. It appeared in the JCRR's General Report no. 1. BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 9 AND 22 1 TRAVELED Land Tenure Condition extensively along the western coast of Taiwan in order to gather firsthand information on the Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of application of the rent reduction program, Taiwan. Before World War II the value of the which went into effect in April 1949. The rent crops in addition to sugar and other processed reduction program stems from conditions under foodstuffs made up four-fifths of the total value which the tenants worked the land and their of the island's production. These commodities .economic and social position in the rural also accounted for four-fifths of the total value scheme of things. In order, therefore, to place of exports. Nearly 60 percent of the population the rent reduction program in its proper con- is directly involved in agricultural production. text, it might be useful, first, to touch upon Despite this important role played by agricul- 'tenancy conditions as they existed prior to the ture in Taiwan's economy, the industry does not promulgation of the program and, second, to spell anything like prosperity to the great ma- outline the principal provisions of the rent re- jority of the farmers. On the contrary, the field duction regulations. Against this background trip just completed made it abundantly clear the evaluation of the progress of the program to me that most of Taiwan's farmers suffer from as observed on the trip will be made in the undernourishment, disease, and poverty. subsequent paragraphs. Many factors have contributed to this, but 96 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the principal one is that in Taiwan, like in pression that as a group they are bent on many other regions of the Far East, there are squeezing all that they can get out of the ten- too many farmers and too little land. Taiwan ants-but they have taken full advantage of the has a total of 823,000 hectares cultivated by hunger and the intensity of competition for the 530,000 farm families-an average of 1.5 limited amount of land and the cultivation hectares per family. In the majority of cases, the right of that land. This resulted in land values actual size of a cultivated holding is smaller and rental rates far above the level justified by than the average. Fully 25 percent of all the the productivity of the soil. It resulted also in farm families cultivate less than half a hectare a situation where the tenants have been willing and 20 percent cultivate from one-half to one. to bind themselves to the land regardless of the Only 26 percent cultivate from one to two terms of tenure. hectares, and those who cultivate more than At the farm meetings that I attended, I raised 10 account for less than 1 percent of all farm numerous questions on the subject of tenancy families. conditions prior to rent reduction. With one or As for land ownership, almost 60 percent of two exceptions, the answers were given freely all the farm families of Taiwan own less than and I have no reason for doubting their accu- a hectare per family and the total amount of racy. The landlords present in those meetings land they own is only 14 percent of all the culti- did not question the evidence furnished by vated area of Taiwan. On the other side of the tenants, and their own answers to my queries scale, less than 3 percent of the farmers own checked with those of the tenants. The general 10 hectares or more. This group has 36 percent pattern of the conditions left no doubt in my of all the land. In short, a great deal of land is mind that the improvement in the position of concentrated in relatively few hands, and the tenant farmers is one of the very important holding cultivated by a Taiwanese farmer has factors in improving the agricultural economy little relationship to the amount of land he of Taiwan. owns. Because of the unequal distribution of There was a widely prevalent view that a land ownership, many farmers own no land at tenant in Taiwan paid 50 percent of the crop all and must cultivate land that belongs to as rental. This notion is not altogether correct. others. Some own so little that in order to im- In most of the rural districts visited, and par- prove their economic status they are compelled ticularly in such important rice-growing dis- to rent additional land. This explains the three tricts as Taichung and Tainan, a tenant paid groups of farmers in Taiwan: owners, part more than 50 percent. The following figures owners and part tenants, and tenants. At the gathered at Panchao District are typical of the present time 32 percent of the farmers are situation in most of the districts. owners, 28 percent are part owners and part tenants, while those who have no land at all YIELDS BY LAND CLASSIFICATION AND represent 39 percent of all the farmers. The RENTS BEFORE RENT REDUCTION tenanted acreage accounts for 54 percent of the total. Catties per hectare Tenancy as an agrarian institution is not an Yields (rent) Percentage evil, but it becomes one when tenancy condi- tions are heavily weighted in favor of landlord First-grade land against tenant. Taiwan is a case in point, as my (10,000 catties) 6,000 60 trip throughout the island and talks with the Second-grade land farmers and landlords so clearly prove. (9,000 caties) 5,000 55 A sound tenancy system is a fair, joint part- Third-grade land nership of landlord and tenant which provides the tenant with a measure of economic well- being and security of tenure. Neither considera- Rentals as high as 60 to 70 percent of the tion held true in Taiwan prior to the rent re- crop are not unknown. In one district it was duction program. In discussing the tenant estimated that only between 5 to 8 percent of situation with landlords, I did not get the im- the tenants pay less than 40 percent of the crop. The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations 97 The rental is not the only charge on the 11,000 to 12,000 catties of rice. Rental and tenant. He must buy very expensive chemical fertilizer deduction will reduce his share to fertilizer; pay for part of the irrigation fees; between 3,500 or 4,500 carries. Considering and provide his own seed, equipment, farm- that a family of six requires 3,500 catties of house, and farm buildings. Only in two out of rice, the tenant would have little or no rice left the eleven districts visited was I told that land- for sale in order to cover other living expendi- lords share with the tenants in the cost of chem- tures. In reality, of course, he cannot afford to ical fertilizer. I tried to find out what the rent, eat all the rice he needs; he subsists on potatoes fertilizer, and water fees mean in terms of a and other cheaper foods. volume of rice harvested. The replies seem to The consumption pattern was made quite indicate that they quite frequently represent as clear to me by the farmers. When asked how much as 70 to 75 percent of the crop. The many of them had enough rice to take care of share from which the tenant draws sustenance their needs between crop seasons, the usual an- represents not more than 25 to 30 percent of swer was that a great many had little or none. the crop. It is rather difficult to reduce the replies to The rent paid by a tenant is not a share of statistical figures, but my impression is that in the crop but is one of so many carries of rice the rice-growing areas probably one-third of per hectare of land regardless what the yield the tenants fall into that category. In the south- might be. I have come across cases of landlords ernmost part of the island in the village of who willingly reduce rents in years of bad Shin-Yin, this group constituted approximately crops, but this is not the usual procedure. 70 percent of all the farmers. Normally, when a fixed amount of rent is paid, Without attempting to express any moral neither exemption nor reduction is recognized. judgment on the landlord-tenant relationships, It is fixed and unchangeable, and such a rent one is warranted in saying that the tenant gets is known among the farmers as "death rent." too little and the landlord gets too much. As the Rent represents only a part of payment that tenancy practice was examined and sifted, it be- a tenant has to make to his landlord. The other came obvious that prior to rent reduction the payment is the so-called "deposit" or "key tenants as a group suffered from insecurity of money" every tenant must make to the landlord tenure. Under conditions of keen competition for securing the lease. All the tenants ques- for a limited acreage, the right of the tenant tioned concerning the deposit system unani- to remain on the land is of utmost importance. mously confirmed its existence. The size of the Written contracts before the rent reduction deposit varied from one- to two-years value of program went into effect were few and far the rental. The deposit is kept by the landlord between. The life of the lease in a written con- as a security fund as long as the lease is in force. tract ranged from one to three years, the yearly If a tenant fails to pay part or all of the rental lease being the most common type. Oral con- when due, the landlord has the right to deduct tracts prevailed with no duration of tenancy the unpaid rental from the deposit. The deposit specified. Whether written or oral, the leasing system has prevented many poor farm laborers arrangements afforded the tenants little protec- from becoming tenants, let alone owner farmers. tion. I talked with a tenant who had cultivated The rental and other charges would be con- the same piece of land for nearly half a century sidered high even if the tenant rented a holding (incidentally, he assured me that he could not of 10, 20, or more hectares. Actually, and very afford to buy that piece of land even if he significantly, 35 percent of the tenants rent less worked it for another fifty years), but I have -than one-half of a hectare of land. In Wan-Li, listened to many more who complained about for instance, thirty-five out of thirty-six tenants the case with which their landlords had can- present at the meeting cultivated less than a celled leases in order to get a higher rental hectare; and at Wu-Hong the average amount from other tenants. Some agreements permitted of cultivated land was 0.8 hectare. Assuming the landlord to recover the land before the ex- that all of the land is paddy rice land and high- piration of the contract with no compensation yielding land-both ideal conditions but not to the tenant for the inconvenience. Other always present-the tenant will harvest from agreements called for payment, but in actual 98 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 practice few tenants ever received compensa- whelming majority of the tenants of Taiwan tion. Whether the tenant was compensated or have never experienced a climb up the agri- not, he lost the right to cultivate the land, cultural ladder, from tenant to owner cultivator, What tenancy in Taiwan meant in terms of not to say from tenant to landlord. The farthest economic well-being prior to rent reduction they climbed is from farm laborer to tenant. cannot be determined statistically. The few Having reached that situation, the chances are references available are out of date, and no that they will always remain tenants. Therein attempt at such studies has been made in re- lies the greatest weakness of the agricultural cent years. The lack of this type of information, system of Taiwan. however, offers no insuperable difficulty in The tenancy practices in Taiwan prior to evaluating tenants' economic status. Even a brief rent reduction assume added significances when visit to a tenant's homestead throws much light one considers the great number of people ad- on this point, and I have made many such versely affected by them. Two-thirds of all the visits in the course of my trip. What they have farm families-tenants and part owners and most are children; what they have least are part tenants-are subjected to the inequities of things that spell material well-being. Of all the the system. The inequities are not only eco- farmyards I have seen in the Far East, Southeast nomic, they are also social and political. One Asia, and in the Middle East, that of the aver- does not have to be a believer in the theory that age Taiwanese tenant is among the worst, both a man's economic position determines his so- in appearance and in equipment. Tenants' huts, cial and political status, but this is certainly true so-called barnyards, equipment, and livestock, in tradition-bound rural Taiwan. One need not as well as their health point to nothing but be primed to the existing conditions by elabo- poverty. rate studies to realize that the community is The touchstone of a tenancy system is divided into first-class (the owners) and second- whether a tenant, if willing, can become an class citizens (the tenants). It is sufficient to owner cultivator. Historical data and my own attend a meeting of landowners and tenants discussions with farmers reveal that in Taiwan and a meeting made up exclusively of tenants the shift is most difficult. Tenants and landlords to realize who rules. The attitude of the offi- were unanimous on one point: The income of cials-of every level-toward the various types the average tenant is so small that he cannot of farmers is also symptomatic of the fact that buy-exceptions notwithstanding-the rented as long as the tenant continues to remain in half hectare, hectare, or 2 hectares of land. I the lowly economic position, the social barriers encountered only one exception, that of fifteen within the community will persist. Under these tenants who had pooled their own and bor- conditions it is idle to seek for any semblance rowed resources and acquired a total of 8 hec- of economic, political, and social stability in tares of land. The question whether tenants rural Taiwan. What the searcher is more likely want to buy land was greeted in many places to find is fertile ground for political extremism with good-humored laughter. They would then and civil dissension. turn the tables on the interrogator and ask him how he would go about buying land with no money. Many a time a workworn tenant stated Effort to Improve Tenancy Conditions that, if he lived twice as long and worked twice as hard, he could not save enough to acquire Such were the principal tenancy practices and the land he now cultivates as a tenant. The their consequences prior to the rent reduction number of tenants who succeeded to the status program inaugurated in April 1949. The system of owner cultivator were very few. The success- is Chinese in origin and closely resembles land- ful ones were beneficiaries of the following tenure arrangements in present-day China. conditions: a benevolent landlord; a larger than Neither before nor after the occupation of Tai- usual tract of good land; and a small family or wan by the Japanese has the land tenure system a large family with a preponderance of hard- been changed in any way. It is for the first time, working adults. This was amply confirmed by therefore, that an effort is being made to revise the farmers during the field trip. The over- some of the worst features of the system The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations 99 through rent reduction and greater security of cultivate the land himself in order to provide tenure. a living for his family and that the land is The program rests on a set of regulations within 3 miles of his residence. In the event a issued by the provincial government of Taiwan landlord wishes to sell or mortgage the land, in order to enforce the rent reduction program he must notify the tenant of the acreage and of the executive Yuan. The main provision of price involved and inquire if he wishes to buy that program is that farm rent must not exceed the land. The landlord may sell the land to 37.5 percent of the total annual output of the another person if the tenant fails to reply within main crops-those customarily accepted in ten days of notification. payment for rent. If the rent is less than Old contracts, whether written or oral, are 37.5 percent it remains unchanged. In the event invalid. New written agreements must take the yield is less than 20 percent of normal, the place of the old ones and must be registered tenant is free from rent payment. with the proper authorities. In addition to being For the purpose of rent collection, all the of at least three-years' duration, every contract cultivated acreage is divided into twenty-six must contain the following main points: (a) grades, and a standard yield is determined for the crops grown and amount of rental; (b) the each grade. If grade I yields 10,000 catties, the amount of the deposit money, not to exceed rental is 3,750 carries; if grade V yields 6,000 one-fourth of the annual rental; (c) types of carries, the rental is 2,250; and so forth. Rentals, water fees paid by landlord and tenants; and therefore, are not to be collected on the basis (d) the extra rental received by landlord if the of actual yield of every rented plot of land. tenant is furnished with the means of produc- Rents must not be collected in advance. In tion, such as work animals, seed, fertilizer, and cases where the landlord supplies the tenant farm equipment. with work animals, seed, and fertilizer, he may The instrument of enforcing the program is collect an additional charge not exceedifig 10 centered in the Enforcement Committee for percent of the value of those items. Irrigation Farm Rent Reduction. A committee is com- costs are to be borne by the landlord and tenant posed of the following fifteen or nineteen mem- in the following manner: Special charges in bers: (a) magistrate or mayor and land ad- connection with the improvements of the ministration chief of the district or municipal canals, dams, pumping facilities, and so forth government; (b) one representative from each are to be paid by the landlord; ordinary year- of the following organizations-law court, dis- in-and-year-out fees for the use of water should trict or municipal council, and local farm as- be paid by the tenant as an item in the cost sociations; (c) three to five principals of of production. secondary schools and three persons of high Deposit or key money must not exceed one- standing not connected with government or fourth of the annual rent. Anything above that farm organizations; and (d) two landlords, must be returned by the landlord to the tenant. two owner cultivators, and two tenants. The tenant is to receive an appropriate interest I familiarized myself with the provisions of on the deposit; the accumulated interest should the rent reduction program in anticipation of become part of the rent and deducted from it the field trip. I was not unmindful of the in- annually. adequacy of some of the items, as I shall have The landlord's former right not to renew a occasion to point them out later on, yet the lease for the purpose of rerenting it to another body of the regulations as a whole seemed rea- tenant is outlawed. The landlord's right to dis- sonable and adequate to meet the purpose for possess the tenant for the purpose of cultivating which they were designed. But even the ideal the land himself is restricted. He is permitted law is no better than the manner of its appli- to take back (after the normal expiration of cation and enforcement. And in China a great the lease) only part of the rented land subject deal of agrarian legislation has remained on the to the consent of the "37.5 percent rent cam- statute books since Sun Yat-sen's days without paign committee" and final approval of the a thought of implementation. This explains my provincial government. The approval in turn skepticism about the rent program in Taiwan rests on the following conditions: That he must and the little credence I placed in official state- 100 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 ments that came to my attention and in the family, whose founder succeeded in obtaining bright pictures painted to me by the official in all the land "within the sight of his dwelling." charge of the program. Firsthand observation It should be noted that the gentleman in ques- of the application of the program seemed the tion was not doing things by halves; he suc- best way of gaging the status of the rent reduc- ceeded in accumulating 10,000 hectares of land. tion program. With that in mind I visited ever)' I also discussed the reform program with land- important agricultural region of the island. lords who deserve that designation by cour- tesy rather than because of the amount of land they own. The scale of operations of an average Taiwanese farmer is so small and the demand Methods of Field Observation for land so great that one need not own a hundred or even 10 hectares to become a rent In the course of the trip a total of twelve meet- collector. A couple of hectares might serve the ings were held, each meeting lasting an average purpose. Nor were the officials concerned with of three hours and each meeting attended by a the carrying out of the program neglected. As minimum of 40 and by as many as 150 farmers. a group they were the most talkative, eager to The assembled represented more than a village; help, but not too informative. All in all, in the they usually represented a district made up of search for an answer on the status of the rent a number of villages. In all but one instance, reduction program, every source of information the farm groups were composed of landlords, available in the field was tapped with various tenants, and owner cultivators. Since there are degrees of success. many more tenants than there are landlords and owner cultivators combined, it is but natural that the tenants were in the majority. In the instance referred to above, the group was made Observations and Conclusions up of tenants only. The gathering of this group was not intended as a measure of discrimina- At the time of this writing the program is only tion in favor of the tenants as against the land- five months old. Its test at this early stage is lords but merely to find out if tenants would not whether all its pertinent parts are being state their views with greater freedom and ease carried out but whether most of the tenants when not inhibited by the presence of their paid their rentals for the first 1949 crops on landlords. This experiment was induced by the the basis of 37.5 percent instead of on the observation that on more than one occasion traditional basis of 50 or 60 percent of the main many a tenant's attention was divided between crops. The answer is that the great majority of the "investigator" and the landlord, not to men- the tenants availed themselves of the oppor- tion a side glance at the few local officials usu- tunity to pay rent in accordance with the new ally in attendance. It fully confirmed the sus- formula. The conclusion I therefore reached picion that, without the benefit of the presence upon the completion of the field trip is that of the landlords, the tenants were more loqua- the rent reduction program is being carried out cious and the process of eliciting meaningful in- successfully. formation was smoother and more successful. Many of the provisions of the rent reduction In addition to group meetings, I talked with program are unknown to most of the tenants. individual tenants and small groups of tenants I have not met one who has read all the regula- in the fields, the rice mills, in the fertilizer dis- tions, but it is equally true that all of them are tribution centers, in wayside eating places, and thoroughly familiar with the all-important 37.5 in "general stores" where farmers the world percent part of the program. I know of no ex- over gather to discuss the events of the day. A ception. Of course, to know of this provision special effort was made to secure the reaction of does not necessarily mean living up to it, and individual landlords, big and small, to the rent a tenant's statement that he paid 37.5 percent reduction program. I have had a number of of the main crop as rental was not by itself ac- talks with such landlords as members of the ceptable as bona fide evidence. By questioning premier landowner family of Taiwan, the Lin tenants regarding their crop yields and rents in The Rent Reduction Prograin in Taiwan: Field Observations 101 the past and in 1949, I concluded that most of in practice. On second thought he changed his them honor the provision. The tenants were not mind as he realized that he was placing himself prepared for such on-the-spot queries, and I am in the position of a double loser, paying the certain that they were not improvising answers old high rent as against the new lower rent and merely to prove that they comply with the at the same time subjecting himself to criminal main provision of the program. My notes con- prosecution in the event the illegal agreement tain a great many answers in terms of so many with the landlord came to light. And so he said catties of output per unit of land and so many that he had reported the case to the authorities. catties paid out as rental. The pattern reveals His account was being interrupted by hostile payment of rent in accordance with the provi- shouts from all over the hall. As nearly as I sions of the law. As a matter of fact, in many could make out, the assembled group felt that instances the rentals this year were even less such episodes should not be paraded before out- than might have been expected under the 37.5 siders; they had best be settled within the percent provision. I shall have occasion to dis- family. There are a number of other evasions cuss this point elsewhere when the subject of that one learns about as he shifts from village the chief grievance of the landlords against the to village, questioning farmers on the progress program is considered. of the rent reduction program-illegal dis- The benefits of the rent reduction program possession of tenants; failure to change the old become obvious as soon as one begins to com- contracts for new; changes in the wording of pare the rentals before and after the enactment the contracts; advanced payment of rent; and of the program. The comparisons show a differ- irregularities in the payment of the water fees, ence in favor of the tenant ranging between in assigning correct yields, and in calculating 1,000 and 2,000 carries of rice from the first rentals in accordance with the new regulations. crop. More often the figure closer to 2,000 and All these, in addition to the first one mentioned, 1,500 catties seems to be a reasonable average. constitute the catalogue of evasions. Some of Tenants who raise two rice crops a year will the evasions are landlord made (dispossession) benefit to the extent of approximately 3,000 while others (black market rent) are com- to 4,000 carties. The significance of the gain mitted by landlords in connivance with the cannot be overestimated. A basket of 50 to 60 tenants. carries of rice has a definite place in the life of When one considers the fact that never be- a tenant who is habitually short of rice between fore in the history of Taiwan was any effort crops. It may mean a week's supply of food for made to ease the burden of the tenants and a family or 50 to 60 carries of the indispensable that the tradition of landlordism and its domi- chemical fertilizer. When hard pressed, as is nation of the countryside has been unimpaired usually the case, he borrows a basketful of rice for many generations past, then there is nothing at a 15 percent monthly interest rate, thus de- surprising about deviations of the kind referred pleting still further his supply in the coming to. That in itself is no cause for alarm. The season. Now for the first time he will have an real question is how widespread the evasions additional twenty or forty baskets of rice, thus are and whether they can undermine the pro- assuring enough for his family and for a supply gram. The answer is that they can neither en- of fertilizer. danger the life of the program nor impede its Despite the advantages that a tenant derives progress to any considerable degree. from the application of the rent reduction pro- Because tenants are reticent about illegal vision, not all of them have availed themselves dealings, I cannot venture a statistical estimate of the opportunity. Seldom did a tenant admit of the magnitude of the evasions. The investi- paying rent at the old rate, but they all know gations of the provincial government, however, about tenants who engage in secret deals with throw considerable light on this subject. The their landlord in order to evade the intent of August report to the JCRR shows the corrected the 37.5 percent provision. In one village a evasions by prefecture and for Taiwan as a courageous tenant stood up and related his whole. Some of the figures appear high. The "deal" with the land, which meant a nominal 14,000 instances of failure to renew contract or payment of 37.5 percent but the customary rent the 10,000 instances of incorrect (purposeful 102 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 or otherwise) estimates of the size of the rent note with more than academic interest that the are cases in point. Many more cases have not great majority of their neighbors are getting been examined and corrected simply because ready to pay a much reduced rental for the they have not been uncovered. second time. The most ignorant of them can The significance of this information need calculate the difference between having or not not be exaggerated. As against the "no con- having an additional 1,000 carries or more of tract" farmers, 285,000 tenants were making rice, and the presumption is that the "economic contract arrangements. Even if the cases of "no man" will prevail. contract" and "incorrect calculation of rent pay- Tenants may be quite right in questioning ments" were twice or three times as large, the interest of the future government of Tai- they would account for a small percentage in wan in land reform matters, but the current both instances. very vigorous efforts by the Taiwan provincial By far the most serious evasion is the black government is there for all to see, and it cannot market rent. The report registers 1,800 such be underestimated. There has been no slacken- cases. Actually the number is much larger. But ing of the drive between the two crop seasons in that event, too, there is no reason to fear for (July to November) to insure the success of the success of the program. Assuming that the the program. Its net effect is the weakening of evaders of legal rent are not 1,800 but 10,000 the landlord opposition and the growing con- or 20,000 strong, they would still represent ap- viction among the tenants that the program proximately 3.5 or 7 percent of all the tenant and its benefits are there to stay. My own im- families of Taiwan. Above all, I am of the pressions gathered in the course of the field trip opinion that the current trend of the program lead me to the view that most tenants already points to greater compliance and away from have that conviction. This explains why the the emasculation of the basic provision of the evasions are not of a magnitude that can im- rent reduction program. pede the program, let alone undermine it. The The rent evasions were not expected. The meetings attended by large and small groups close relationship between landlord and tenant of farmers or talks with individual farmers and particularly the fear to incur the displeasure seem to indicate that the great majority of them of the former who still owns the land the tenant have given the program a hearty approval-and cultivates is the main cause of the evasions. A not in a perfunctory manner. One might say good many tenants look critically upon gov- that they voted for the program by paying ernment actions even if designed to benefit 37.5 percent of the main crops, compared with them. They must be convinced in a very prac- the customary rents. The rent reduction pro- tical way, and over a long period of time, that gram stood the test well in its infancy: there the efforts of the government in their behalf is reason to believe that it will pass the test are not in the nature of "Greeks bearing gifts." even better as it matures as the rent payment Hence the cautiousness, bordering on mistrust, for the second crop takes place. with which some tenants approach the rent re- One of the questions raised at every meeting duction program. In meeting after meeting, I is the way in which tenants utilize the benefits raised the question if in their opinion the pro- derived from rent reduction. Judging by the gram will "stick." The answer was typical: answers, the extra carries of rice will be used "Yes, if the government so desires." But there to improve living conditions and to raise agri- was considerable doubt in the minds of the cultural production. More specifically, tenants tenants whether the governments succeeding will eat more rice; they will be in a better posi- the present one will "so desire." And so long as tion to repair their homes and farm buildings, tenants entertain such doubts, there will be a add to or renew their transportation facilities, number of "fence sitters" who will continue to give their children a measure of schooling, buy pay the traditional rent-just in case. more fertilizer, farm implements, livestock, and It is very likely, however, that as the pay- discharge a small debt. In discussing the bene- ment of rent for the second crop draws nearer fits and their utilization, a few voices were (December-January), the number of "wait raised on the subject of small versus "big" ten- and see" tenants will decline considerably. They ants. It was stated that the big tenants are pre- The Rent Reduction Progranm in Taiwan. Field Observations 103 sumably the real beneficiaries of rent reduction; the time being, they all want the next best that is, they wvili be able now to acquire land. thing-security of tenure. This point was em- It is true, of course, that the bigger the ten- phasized in meeting after meeting, and the ant the greater his benefits under the program. tenants felt that the new contract under the The fact is, however, that there is no reason rent reduction program falls short of security of to believe that many tenants wvill be able to tenure. The three-year life of a contract was purchase land. The exceptions will merely prove much too short, they insisted. Tenants wvould the rule. like to see the tenure provision changed frorn Prior to the enactment of the rent reduction three to six years. The argument for the exten- program, a Taiwanese landlord, normally, had sion of the life of a lease is unimpeachable. The no land for sale. On the contrary, he was in the willingness to invest in improving the land and business of buying land and converting small raising agricultural production would be rma- owner farmers into tenants. This attitude has terially heightened. I could not help but ag' ree undergone a basic change since the introduction with them, since it is a wvell-known fact that of the rent reduction program. I heard many a the longer the duration of the lease the better landlord say that he wvishes to sell all or part the chances are that the tenants will put the of his land, the only stumbling block being lack land to the best possible use. Dr. Tang of JCRR of buyers. These wvere nor mere statements for and the provincial officials responsible for the tenants, too, were pointing out names of land- program are cognizant of this Situation. Since lords unsuccessfully trying to sell land. Some of the extension of the contract from three to six the big landlords disposed of their land in an- years wvould benefit both tenant and landlord, ticipation of some kind of land reform. A good there is no reason that the duration of the con- example of this is Lin Tsu Wei, one of the tract, as part of the reduction program, should biggest landowners of Taiwan. In an interview not he revised accordingly. he told me that, anticipating that some changes In 1947 the total cultivated area of Taiwan in the land tenure arrangements were inevitable was estimated at 834,000 hectares. The area -and at the expense of the landowners-hie under irrigation was placed at 600,000 hectares, decided to sell his land. And so he did, and at 72 percent of the total arable land. It follows the peak of the market, in late 1948. He re- that irrigation in Taiwan is as important as ceived 15 ounces of gold per hectare of land. In fertilizers as a means of increasing agricultural the fall of 1949 similar land wvas vainly offered production. The rice and sugar culture of the for sale at 9 to 10 ounces of gold. The signifi- island, the basis of its wealth, is dependent upon cant point about the sales of land prior to rent mraintaining the existing and constructing new reduction was that merchants and other city irrigation facilities. In the years prior to rent people of means were the buyers. Tenant par- reduction, irrigation facilities have been well ticipation was rather limited. Mr. Lin's case is maintained, but in certain circles in Taipei there illustrative of the situation: He told mne that 90 was much concern about the stare of these fa- percent of his land was bought by merchants cilities in consequence of the application of the and only 10 percent went to the tenants. And rent program. It wvas felt that the landlords, even the decline in prices and the benefits of wvith reduced incomes, will lose interest in rent reduction have not effected any change in maintaining the old and adding new irrigation the buying, or rather lack of buying, capacity facilities. on the part of the tenants. It is worth noting The matter of the future of irrigation came that in the six months after the inaLuguration of up for serious discussion at every farm meeting; the rent reduction program the tenants acquired and if I am to take the statements of the ten- only 537 hectares of land. In short, the rent ants and landlords at their face v'alue, a de- reduction benefits, real and significant though terioration in the irrigation facilities need not they are, will have little effect upon the inner- be anticipated. The financial burden of provid- most desire of every tenant in Taiw,an-to own ing water for the fields was formerly carried by the land he cultivates, the landlords, but according to the new regula- While the tenants fully realize that owner- tions irrigation expenses are divided into two ship of land is beyond their means, at least for categories: (a) "special water fees," paid by 104 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the landlords, to cover maintenance and repairs The situation described above refers to ob- of dikes and water channels and (b) "ordinary servation gleaned from a field trip in September. water fees," paid by the tenants, to cover the Since then new water fee standards have been water supply for irrigation. The provincial set up, and a perusal of the list of landlord- government apportioned the expenses in this tenant irrigation fees indicates that the share manner on the ground that the landlord who of the tenants has been increased. They must owns the land must see to it that the overall bear, for instance, 20 percent of the cost of productivity of the land is maintained, while "restoration of damaged construction" and all the tenant's payment for the water is just an- of the cost of "maintenance of small-scale con- other item in his cost of production. The ten- struction." As in the past, the cost of new con- ants questioned on this point have taken no struction projects will be charged to the land- exception to this expense. They are fully aware lords, but whether they will be willing or able of the reduced income of the landlords and, to develop new irrigation facilities is open to above all, of the importance of irrigation and question. are willing to pay for it. Their real objection is In order to facilitate the enforcement of the that, although tenants (as well as the land- rent reduction program, its authors provided lords) must make payment to the water con- for the creation of special rent campaign con- servancy committees, which determine the size mittees, composed of landlords, tenants, owner of the fee, they are not as yet represented on cultivators, school principals, village heads, the committees. It is something in the nature police officials, and so forth. Committees of this of objecting to taxation without representation, kind, bent on the execution of the program, can and tenants fear that committees dominated by be a great boon not only for the immediate the landlords will pass on to tenants some of purpose for which they were designed but also the "special" fees in one way or another. It is for the general improvement of the economic, obvious that once the problem of representa- political, and social welfare of the community. tion is taken care of, tenants would bear the The land commissions of Japan, created for the cost uncomplainingly, even if fees had to be purpose of enacting the land reform there, are revised upwards. The provincial government is an excellent example of that. In Japan the work aware of the fact that the irrigation expense of the commission has given rise to a form of provision of the rent reduction program calls adult education and new village leadership from for changes in the composition of the water among the tenants. A Taiwanese village would conservancy committees, which until recently benefit enormously from the participation of were made up by landlords only. the tenants in important decisions affecting life Landlords are less happy about the irrigation of the community. Unfortunately, the trip provision than tenants are. Neither in the pres- through Taiwan in September of 1949 revealed ence of tenants nor privately have landlords ob- that the rent campaign committees were more jected to their share of the charge as far as paper organizations. repairs and maintenance of the existing facili- For all practical purposes the committees ties are concerned, but I was left with the im- were not functioning. In village after village pression, nevertheless, that they would much I found that they seldom meet, that the appli- rather be spared the charge now that their in- cation of the rent reduction program is de- come is reduced. On the other hand, it is also pendent upon the drive of the government true that, like it or not, the landlords will have rather than upon the work of the committees. to keep the irrigation facilities in good condi- In short, the program designed for the benefit tion in order to maintain the productive ca- of the great masses of the people is being pacity and market value of their land. The carried out without the participation of the tenants who expressed these views actually people. Moreover, the very composition of the spoke for the landlords who understand the eco- committees does not augur well for the train- nomics of irrigation just as well as the tenants ing of new leadership in the villages. The num- do. The conclusion that landlords will maintain ber of tenants on a committee of approximately the irrigation facilities and tenants will pay for eighteen is usually not more than two, while the water supply is therefore warranted. the others are representing groups that are not The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations 105 necessarily in sympathy with tenant interests. by the fact that I was a representative of JCRR, It is extremely difficult under such conditions an institution supporting the program. This ex- to change even slightly the customary conduct plains in a large measure why I never en- of and the thinking about village affairs. It countered a clear-cut expression of opposition should be added also that the members of the to the program. On the other hand, they spoke committees are not elected but are appointed by freely in opposition to the land-grading system the village heads, at the village level. Too much upon which the 37.5 percent rental is based. In responsibility-not always justifiable-is lodged, the main, their criticism of the unfairness of therefore, in the hands of the village heads. the grading system was justified. The findings concerning the "work" of the During the Japanese administration, all land rent campaign committees were called to the in Taiwan was graded (classified) according to attention of the responsible officers of the pro- location, irrigation facilities, fertilizer applica- vincial government. As an aid to the reorgani- tion, type of crop, and so forth. Basically, grad- zation of the committees along sound lines, I ing of land was in accordance with its fertility. prepared a detailed statement on the nature Altogether there were twenty-eight grades of and work of the land commissions in Japan, land, and the standard yield of a given grade urging that they serve as a pattern for Tai- of land determined the rent and the rate of wanese committees. I left with the assurance taxation. The war and postwar dislocation of S. K. Shen, director of the land bureau of caused a decline in yields, especially in the im- the provincial government, that immediate steps mediate postwar years. With the increase in would be taken to give real meaning to the fertilizer supply and improvement in irrigation committees-that less emphasis would be given facilities, yields have risen in 1948 and 1949. to government edicts and more to the partici- It is the contention of the landlords that in pation of the farmers themselves in the enforce- revising the grading system the provincial gov- ment of a program which affects them deeply.' ernment set the standard yields at levels con- The attitude of tenants towards the rent re- siderably below the actual yields. The result is duction program was what was to have been that in practice many a tenant pays not a 37.5 expected and so was that of the landlords, percent rental but something lower than that; favorable in the first instance and one of oppo- I know of instances where the rental was closer sition in the second. The whole idea of rent to 30 percent of the crop. reduction, greater security of tenure, and The question of grading came up at every abridgement of their former rights and privi- meeting, and it was quite obvious that tenants leges made no sense to landlords. It constituted were on the defensive insofar as this very im- a break with tradition, a break that came rather portant question was concerned. I had the im- suddenly and for which they were not prepared. pression that they were a bit embarrassed by Even the actual promulgation of the program the very favorable yield standards set by the in April 1949 was not taken seriously by the government. Talks with local and provincial landlords (nor by the tenants for that matter). officials pointed to the fact that the grades and Only when Governor Chen Cheng made it yield standards were a "slapdash" affair, con- clear that he intended to enforce the program trived without much investigation or reference in order to secure a measure of political support to actual conditions. from the people, and only after a few recalci- Much was said on both sides on how to solve trant landlords were sent to jail, did landlords the problem. From the point of view of the bow to the inevitable. landlord, nothing could be fairer than 37.5 per- The reluctant acceptance of the program cent of the actual yield in any given year. From was apparent in all my meetings with land- the point of view of the tenants, the solution lords, whether in the village hall or in their lies in the adjustment of the grades and existing homes. Their views were tempered, of course, standard yields that would conform more nearly to the actual yields. The tenants recognize, therefore, the unfairness of the grading sys- 1. Ladejinsky's note on the nature and work of the tem; and, to the extent that they do, it seems land commissions in Japan follows this paper. (Ed.) to me that their idea of an adjustment is much 106 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 sounder than the one propounded by the land- No figure of less than 150 percent was quoted lords. to me. Under the Japanese the credit system, The latter want, in effect, a flexible rent which enabled a farmer to secure a loan at a which would have to be determined every year, reasonable interest rate, was part-and-parcel of depending upon the yield. The procedure would the widespread cooperative network. The latter lead to no end of disputes between landlord was the center of dissemination of agricultural and tenant, and, above all, it would tend to knowledge, of fertilizer, and farm equipment thwart the tenant's incentive to improve the distribution on credit, and so forth. land and raise agricultural production. It would JCRR is concerned with the reorganization seem, therefore, that a fair adjustment of land of the farm cooperatives, but to give meaning grades and standard yields and periodic revi- to the best outline of a co-op system it must sions approximately every five or ten years be provided with initial funds and efficient would meet the criticism of the landlords and management. These are very scarce now and particularly of the small landlords whose source will probably remain so for some time to come. of income is rent from very few acres. Before Yet it should be reiterated that even the im- my departure from Taiwan I was given to un- portant benefits derived from the rent reduc- derstand that the provincial government will tion program will not suffice to insure for the make an earnest effort to correct an admittedly post-reduction rent tenants a real measure of bad situation. economic security. Somehow sound credit and Since the end of World War II, I have cooperative systems must be created in order to visited a number of regions in Asia formerly avoid the burdens of indebtedness and usury. occupied by Japan; but only in Taiwan did I These, plus the technical improvements that hear peasants say: "Oh, yes, under the Japanese are being effected by JCRR in Taiwan, are the we were better off," or words to that effect. I sureties that will enable an industrious and effi- heard such statements on numerous occasions cient tenant to maintain his newly acquired in the course of the field trip. The answer to gains. my questions as to why peasants felt that way One of the most prevalent grievances of the would be given in terms of ample availability tenants of Taiwan is the handling of the public of fertilizers, credit, and technical services ren- lands by the provincial government. The ques- dered by the cooperatives and experiment sta- tion of public land is a complicated one, but tions. These are the things that have been for our purposes it is sufficient to point out largely responsible for the development of the that the provincial government is in the busi- island's agriculture in the past fifty years, and ness of renting and selling some of this land. these are things the scarcity of which is keenly Without exception, the tenants are critical of felt by Taiwanese farmers. the government in both instances. It was neither within my province nor did The public land in question is land rented I have the time to delve into the problems of to the tenants by the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, fertilizer supply, farm credit, cooperatives, and which is government owned. The rental is 25 experiment stations. Moreover, JCRR is fully percent of the crop, or 12.5 percent less than aware of the existence of these problems and the rental on privately owned land. The seem- much is being done to solve them. A good ex- ing difference in favor of the tenant is more ample of that is the marked improvement in the apparent than real. This stems from the fact fertilizer supply. It is worth emphasizing, how- that, while the tenants grow sugar cane, the ever, that even under the rent reduction pro- rent is based on so many catties of rice per gram a great many Taiwanese farmers are unit of land. A tenant then sells the sugar to marginal operators. They know little of "fat" buy rice in order to make good the rental. It years, and of reserves to meet the "lean" years- happens that the price of sugar is low and the much less. Taiwan has no farm credit system of price of rice is high; thus, the net income a ten- any consequence. The so-called credit system ant derives from a sugar cane crop is much means borrowing from loan sharks in the guise smaller than the income from a similar area of friends, relatives, and merchants at interest planted to rice. Hence the complaints that 25 rates ranging from 150 to 200 percent a year. percent rental on public lands is, in effect, The Rent Reduction Program in Taiwan: Field Observations 107 higher than 37.5 percent on private lands. The something approximating the benefits of the tenants insist, therefore, that it is unreasonable tenants on privately owned land. to be forced to grow sugar cane and to have to Such, in the main, are my observations and pay rent in rice, a crop they do not grow on conclusions of the operations of the rent reduc- this land. tion program in September 1949. The out- The provincial government is interested standing impression is that the program came in promoting land ownership among tenants. into being not at the whim of General Chen Therefore, early in 1949 it set aside 10,000 Cheng, governor of Taiwan, but because the hectares for sale to the tenants. The price was need for it was rooted in the rural conditions fixed at 250 percent of the main crop yield of of the island. The work and life of the tenants land, payable in five to eight years, depending of Taiwan, as I observed them firsthand, testify upon the condition of the land. This means to the need for overhauling landlord-tenant re- that in the first case a tenant must pay 50 per- lations in order to alleviate some of the worst cent of the crop and in the second, 33 percent. features under which they are carried on. It is Throughout 1949 only 4,000 hectares had been therefore to the great credit of Governor Chen sold. The purchasers and would-be purchasers and the few men around him who had the take exception not to the price but to the short wisdom to initiate the rent reduction program period of repayment. They would like to have and who later displayed the tenacity of purpose it extended to ten to fifteen years. so basic to the overcoming of the opposition It is axiomatic that a new owner can be as and to the carrying out of the program. badly off as a tenant paying high rentals if the No observer of the program in action can payments for the land fall due in a relatively fail to notice numerous failings, and practically short period of time. His chances of firmly es- all of significance have been recorded in the tablishing himself on the land through greater foregoing pages. They do not constitute in- accumulations in the initial years of ownership superable problems; even the more serious of are thereby reduced. The suggestions of the ten- them, such as the land-grading system, can be ants to pay for the land over ten to fifteen years solved. There is one exception, however: the is well taken. opposition of the landlords, especially the small I believe that the tenants have a justifiable ones. An improved grading system will not grievance on the score of leasing as well as of change their attitude. purchasing public land. The government is As land reform programs go, the one in Tai- eager to collect as much rice as possible. Its wan may well be placed in the category of the motives are quite understandable: it must feed mild ones. But no matter how mild, it calls an army and an urban population (particularly for a reduction in the income of landlords. In the government servants) and accumulate no other way can the standard of living of emergency reserves. The government welcomes Taiwanese tenants be raised dramatically and any additional volume of rice, small though it quickly. Nor has the government any other might be, that comes into its hands. On the means of making a serious effort to secure their other hand, there is the danger of minimizing political support at this time. Considering the the effects of the larger issue involved in the premises underlying the rent reduction pro- rent reduction program, which is to raise the gram in Taiwan on the one hand and the condi- economic welfare of the tenants and to gain tions of the traditional patterns of landlord- their goodwill and support. tenant relations on the other, the landlords' Because of the prevailing lower sugar cane dislike of the program is inevitable. This was prices, tenants on private land and owner farm- true also in Southwest China, where I observed ers have been shifting from sugar to rice culture the application of the rent reduction program in increasing numbers. Tenants on public land in late fall of 1949. It is true of the Far East would like to do the same, but they must grow and of the rest of Asia where land reform pro- sugar on that land and have no other occupa- grams have either been instituted (Japan) or tion than farming. It seems reasonable that the are about to be instituted (Korea, India), or government should not take advantage of this are yet to be introduced. This opposition alone situation and should, instead, adjust rentals to is no argument against land reform so long as 108 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the need for it is urgent and so long as the pro- political capital out of the rent reduction pro- gram is not confiscatory in nature. Both are true gram is rather difficult, if not impossible, at in Taiwan. The real concern then of the spon- this stage. sors of the rent reduction program should be The rent reduction program in Taiwan, in only with the correction of its shortcomings. I contrast to that of Southwest China, was initi- left Taiwan with a strong impression that an ated by the provincial government. But the role earnest effort will be made in that direction. of JCRR in helping to execute the program was By the end of September the program was as important as it was in Southwest China. This only five months old, and while examining it came about through JCRR's expert technical ad- I was struck not so much by its deficiencies vice and through financial assistance. The latter (these were to be expected) but rather by its was devoted entirely to such items as printing accomplishments. The inescapable impression new contracts and paying salaries of registrars was that the program though new was being and supervisors over a limited period of time. carried out, that the tenants were reaping con- Watching the results of this type of assistance, siderable benefits, and that the evasions were I believe that, had JCRR aid been lacking, the not impairing the progress of the program, rent reduction program would not have gone This is not to say that the program is fully as far as it has, either quantitatively or qualita- established, although indications are that it will tively. I doubt very much that so many new be. The driving force behind the program is, contracts would have been drawn up and that of course, the abiding interest and energy dis- so many tenants would have paid rents on the played by the provincial government. A change new basis. And yet, the amount of money spent in attitude coincident with the rather negligible by JCRR from the inception of the program participation of tenants in promoting the pro- (May) through (September) was only $30,000. gram would seriously retard the entire effort. It is no exaggeration to say that approximately Only a careful appraisal of the rent reduction . f f progam n erly195 (i.., fte th seond 300,000 farm families benefited from this ex- program in early 1950 (i.e., after the second pedtr.cRhsdmotaedow uh rent payment) will tell how firmly the program penditure. JCRR has demonstrated how much has become rooted. can be accomplished with a little money when Assuming that the program had been carried it is spent for a good purpose and judiciously. out successfully, the immediate economic gains JCRR's contributions in the field of rent re- to tenants will be considerable indeed. But will duction far transcend the benefits now enjoyed the realization of the program secure for the by the tenants of Taiwan. It has broadened the government the political support of these ten- concept of technical agricultural aid by recog- ants? At first glance the answer should be nizing the importance of dealing with Asian affirmative on the ground that "you don't shoot land tenure problems as a vital part of agrarian Santa Claus." Yet, my impression is that to reform. Closely allied is the fact that even the most Taiwanese tenants the provincial govern- best results of technical aid will be limited if ment is rather an exacting and, above all, a de- landlords continue to receive the larger share of manding taskmaster. Government distribution the increased output. The tiller of the soil will of fertilizer only in exchange for rice serves in not have the necessary incentive to sustain him itself to minimize in the eyes of the tenants the in his effort to improve the land if the burden- benefits from the government rent reduction pro- some conditions under which he rents his farm gram. Official rice prices and rice requisitions remain unchanged. This then is the significance swell the list of grievances of the Taiwanese of the JCRR pattern of agricultural reconstruc- farmers against the government. Very signifi- tion in Taiwan. It has concerned itself with all cant, too, is the unfortunate political climate principal elements that tend to make for higher that pervades the island, and, rightly or wrongly, production and for a fairer distribution of farm the average Taiwanese holds the Chinese ad- income. This is a pattern of pioneering work ministration responsible for it. For these reasons worth studying and applying, with modifica- the task of the provincial government to gain tions where necessary, in poverty-stricken rural the popular support of the tenants and make areas everywhere. Land Commissions in Japan 109 i1. Land Commissions in Japan This is the note referred to by Ladejinsky in the preceding paper. It took the form of a memorandum addressed to Raymond Moyer, one of the two U.S. members of the JCRR. In transmitting the memorandum, Ladejinsky observed: "I might add that the commissions amply justified their existence, for the land reform program in Japan could not have been carried out without their existence." This helps to explain, therefore, the great importance Ladejinsky always attributed to the role of implementation in agiarian reforms. Also note- worthy is his view of the function served by local commissions in developing a new generation of leaders in the countryside. Nearly twelve years later, after a visit to Indonesia, Ladejinsky transmitted a copy of this memorandum to Dr. Sadjarwo, minister for agrarian reform, with whom he had discussed agrarian questions. In his letter of transmittal he wrote: "In asking you to examine it, I am not suggesting that the Japanese method is necessarily applicable in Indonesian village conditions. . . . However, I do wish to reiterate once again that even in Japan, with a well-functioning administrative machine, the reform could not have been carried out without the existence of the commissions. In a real sense, they insured the success of the reform." This memorandum, undated, must have been finished shortly after the field trip in Taiwan was completed in late September 1949. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADMINISTRATION of tenants, three landowners, and two owner culti- the land reform program and for the actual vators who would serve for a two-year term at transfer of land ownership through purchase a nominal salary of Y200 per year. Prefectural and resale was vested in the land commissions. governors had the right to appoint three addi- The enacted legislation provided for the elec- tional commissioners, provided that these ap- tion of local and prefectural commissions and pointees were requested and unanimously ap- the appointment by the Cabinet of a Central proved by the elected commissioners. The Land Commission. chairman would be chosen by and from the Elected members of local and prefectural ranks of the elected commissioners. In the event land commissions were to be composed of of a deadlock, the prefectural governor would representatives of three categories of voters, de- .o a eadlock, the pfu g e woul fine asfolows:(a)tennts:peronsappoint a chairman from among the three addi- engaging tional appointed members. The composition of in cultivation who owned no agricultural land or who cultivated twice as much land as they -owned; (b) landlords: persons who did not cases be altered; however, the proportion of cultivate the land they owned or who owned representation would always remain the same. twice the amount they cultivated; and (c) Persons eligible to vote or become candi- owner cultivators: those who cultivated the land dates for office on the local land commissions they owned but who did not belong in either had to be at least 20 years of age and be im- of the previous categories, mediate members of households cultivating one tan (one-fourth of an hectare) or more of land a . Cin Japan proper and three tan in Hokkaido. Local Land Commissions Voters dissatisfied with their representatives Elected members of local land commissions in could, under the provisions of the law, demand each city, town, or village would include five their resignation and schedule new elections. 110 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 The procedure for recalling commissioners was Prefectural Land Commissions as follows: Prefectural land commissions were composed 1. Petitions requesting the resignation of a par- of ten tenants, six landlords, and four owner ticular commissioner had to be submitted in cultivators elected by and from the membership writing to the mayor or village headman by of the local commissions. The Minister of a majority of the eligible voters within the Agriculture and Forestry could appoint up to same category as the commissioners in ques- ten additional members. The governor of the tion. The recall petitions would affect all prefecture would act as chairman. Prefectural the commissioners within any single cate- land commissioners received '#60 for every gory. semimonthly meeting attended. 2. Recall elections would be scheduled by the The prefectural land commissions functioned mayor or village headman within two weeks primarily as agencies for reviewing the deci- after public announcement of the recall peti- sions of the local land commissions. They were tion. Commissioners elected in recall elec- required to approve the purchase and sale of tions would serve the remainder of their farm facilities, building sites, buildings, and predecessor's term of office. grassland and to pass on the cases of exemp- tions allowed by the local commissions. They Neutral appointed members of the commis- functioned also as boards of appeal to which sion could be dismissed from their posts by the landlords or tenants dissatisfied with the deci- prefectural governor but only with the unani- sions of the local commissions could present mous consent of the popularly elected commis- their cases for review. If tenant arbitration sioners. proved unsuccessful, the prefectural commis- The actual purchase and sale of lands would sions submitted detailed opinions necessary for be carried out by the local land commissions. As settling disputes concerning the continuation executive organs of the land reform program, of tenacy and the modification of the terms of these commissions had broad powers which tenancy agreements. Other duties included: they could exercise with a minimum of govern- conducting the exchange, division, and pooling mental interference. These included (a) draft- of farmland; drafting purchase plans for un- ing the purchase plans for each village, (b) claimed lands and fishing rights; establishing determining the suitability of lands to the put- acreage standards within prefectural districts in chased, (c) establishing the eligibility of pur- connection with the average retention rates chasers, and (d) deciding cases requiring allowed by the Central Land Commission; and unusual or special treatment and approving passing judgment on all other matters referred cases of exemption from the purchase provi- to them by the local commissions. sions. In addition to purchasing lands subject to compulsory sale under the terms of the law, local land commissions were empowered to pur- chase for the government other agricultural Central Land Commission lands offered for sale and approve the purchase by the government of pasture lands, reclaimed The Central Land Commission consisted of lands, housing sites, buildings, and equipment eight tenants and eight landlords elected by the in order to facilitate land ownership among ten- prefectural commissioners plus two representa- ants. All transfers of ownership and transfers tives of national farm organizations and five and cancellations of leases and superficies or agricultural experts appointed by the Cabinet other rights had to receive the approval of the on recommendation of the Minister of Agri- local land commission or of the prefectural culture and Forestry. The Minister was chair- governor. The commissions also mediated ten- man of the commission. Central land commis- ant disputes and determined the amount of sioners received traveling expenses of #200 farm rents. The meetings of the commissions plus Y105 for each monthly meeting attended. were open to the public, and the minutes were The Central Land Commission was responsi- available at all times for public inspection. ble for formulating nationwide policies on land Land Commissions in Japan 111 reform, such as (a) establishing prefectural form legislation, for the purpose of instructing breakdowns of national retention averages al- public officials responsible for its administra- lowed by the law; (b) determining the basis tion. This information campaign was supple- for setting prices of agricultural facilities, un- mented by releases to newspapers throughout claimed lands, grasslands, and buildings; (c) rural Japan and by a series of radio programs. determining the ratio of yearly installment pay- ments to the value of the crops; and (d) estab- lishing rent scales within the limits provided Local Land Commission Elections by the law. Rural land commission elections began on schedule and were completed December 31, Pre-election Registration and 1946. The procedures followed were in general Information Campaign the same as those governing the election of city, town, or village councillors. Surveys of The first step towards the implementation of the election returns revealed that a total of the basic land reform legislation was the regis- 10,777 local land commissions had been formed tration of all eligible voters in the categories but that only 52 percent (5,600) had actually of owner, owner cultivator, and tenant in prepa- been chosen by election. The remaining 48 per- ration for the land commission elections. cent (4,732) had been seated by proclamations Prospective voters registered their names, date issued by villages headmen, since the number of birth, permanent residence, and the area of of candidates equalled the number of posts to the land owned or cultivated by them at village, be filled, in accordance with the Agricultural town, and municipal offices throughout Japan. Land Adjustment Law Enforcement Order, The lists of electors were thrown open to pub- which allowed candidates to be elected un- lic inspection for a fifteen-day period after opposed. Subsequent field investigations con- November 5, 1946, and copies were made ducted by occupation authorities revealed that available by village headmen at all polling from 75 to 80 percent of the land commis- places. On November 30, 1946, the nationwide sioners were accepted as satisfactory by their registration of electors was completed. constituents, that in the majority of cases in In preparation for the elections, which were which no elections had been held the selection scheduled to take place on December 20, the of candidates had been accomplished according Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry issued in- to democratic procedures, but that there had structions to all prefectural government officials been a few instances in which there were evi- concerning their responsibilities in giving ade- dences of voting controlled by vested com- quate advance publicity to the forthcoming munity interests. As a result of this survey, the elections. Each governor was informed on De- Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry took im- cember 12, 1946, that he would be held legally mediate steps to acquaint farmers through all responsible for the proper dissemination of in- available information media of their rights un- formation on election procedures within his der the law to oust commissioners who did not prefecture. He was further directed to call represent them. Prefectural governors were meetings of all subordinate regional heads in given specific instructions relative to the circu- order to ensure adequate distribution and circu- lation of 300,000 circulars in all rural areas lation of 630,000 posters, circulars, and pam- explaining the procedures for requesting and phlets prepared by the ministry for the purpose scheduling recall elections in communities of informing farmers of their rights under the where the majority of voters were dissatisfied land reform legislation. This printed material with their representatives. included (a) 300,000 circulars explaining the functions and duties of the agricultural com- missions and the procedures governing the elec- Prefectural Land Commission Elections tions; (b) 300,000 circulars explaining the basic provisions of the law; and (c) 30,000 In order to ensure the proper dissemination of pamphlets explaining the text of agrarian re- information on the procedures for selecting pre- 112 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 fectural land commissioners, the date of the tion of an agricultural land commission afforded prefectural land commission elections was post- all the adult farm population, tenants as well poned until February 20. The elections, which as owners, an opportunity to vote on a matter were completed throughout the forty-six pre- of real interest to all elements of the village. fectures by February 25, were conducted accord- The very composition of the commission pro- ing to two alternative methods for establishing claimed the fact that the tenants' interests were election districts. One method treated the pre- to be protected by the tenants themselves rather fecture as a single voting district which elected than by someone acting on their behalf within a commission of ten tenants, six owners, and the traditional pattern of rural Japan. four owner cultivators. The second method pro- Soon after the agricultural land commis- vided for two voting districts, each of which sioners had been selected in December 1946, elected five tenants, three owners, and two they began to explore their assignment. The owner cultivators as representatives on the pre- first phase was the purchasing of the arable land fectural commissions. of absentee owners and corporations, for these During February 1947 the Ministry of Agri- purchases did not involve the complicated mat- culture and Forestry requested all prefectural ter of determining retention rates before pur- governors to submit the names and biographies chase. Later followed the purchases of lands of eligible candidates for consideration as neu- rented out by temples and shrines and then the tral members of the prefectural land commis- lands of resident-owner operators and remple sions. All elected members of the prefectural and shrines lands operated by priests or groups land commissions were screened in accordance of parishioners. The maximum retention rate with the purge directive before they were per- in most villages was about 3 cho (7.4 acres). mitted to pass on the appointed members of In early 1947 there was considerable doubt the commission. All appointed members in in some of the villages, especially those in their turn were screened before assuming office. southern Japan, as to whether or not the land reform would actually be carried out. There was evidence that many tenants wanted to play Central Land Commission Appointment the game safe. They wanted to own the land, if it were possible; but, not being absolutely cer- Candidates for appointment to the Central Land rain that it would be sold to them, they wanted Commission were selected by the Ministry of to maintain their traditional, accepted relation- Agriculture and Forestry and screened in ships with the landowning families from whom March. The list of the names and biographies they rented. of the proposed appointees was then forwarded As the commissions went forward with their to the Cabinet for approval. Final appoint- program of purchasing on schedule, and espe- . . cially when the reselling of the land started, ments of the central land commissioners was y confirmed on March 26, 1947. the village importance attached to membership on the commission increased greatly. Then, and only then, did it become plain that the tenant members of the commissions actually had au- Adult Education Aspects thority. Every week added to the prestige of of the Land Reform the commissions, and especially to its tenant members. Up until the resale of the land began, The duties performed by the land commissions many of the tenant members didn't know just have given rise to a form of adult education, what their situation was. Most of them seemed the significance of which would be hard to over- to have assumed that the landlord members of estimate. Farm tenant members of the cominis- the commission were cooperating in the pro- sion, many of whom were obviously ill at ease grain under duress and that, as soon as they had and insecure in their new posts in early 1947, the opportunity to undo what was being done, were seasoned performers in 1948. For in the their own sense of self-interest would lead meantime they had taken a responsible part in them in that direction. This attitude vanished numerous transactions and decisions. The selec- with the resale of the land actually inder way. Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 113 The purchase and resale of the land were chased that the initial phase of the program complicated affairs. In each village hundreds would be completed on schedule. By then the and hundreds of small tracts were involved, villagers were generally aware of the authority each with its own size and shape; and, in addi- which the commission actually had. This au- tion, many tracts with forest or other rights had thority became especially convincing as the to be dealt with. More than this, some tenant village offices began arrangements for formal families could not purchase because the plots entry of the sales in the land ledger in the they were tenanting were not for sale; that is, registry office under the jurisdiction of the at- the fields might be those which an owner oper- torney general's office. ator could hold within his retention right, above People other than tenant members and clerks and beyond the area he was cultivating. Such who received valuable new training through tenants often wanted and were eligible to buy the execution of the land reform program were land. The commissions sometimes resourcefully the buraku (subdivision of a village) repre- worked out exchange of plots between absentee sentatives, who took an active part in the work owners and those that could still be rented by of the commissions, especially when the land resident operators. In these cases two or more in question was located in their particular part transactions had to take place before the tenant of the village. There was an average of at least could buy, which meant additional detailed three clerks per commission, and perhaps not work by the commission. The vast amount of less than a half dozen buraku representatives. detail involved becomes understandable when Thus, about fifteen to twenty men in each vil- it is noted that in one village there were ap- lage had unique firsthand leadership training proximately 11,000 pieces of land involved in within two years; and at least a third of these purchase and resale, while in others the num- were from the farm tenant group, who within ber was around 2,000 to 4,000. the old tenure system could hardly have hoped The clerks of the commissions played a most to play such a role. important part in the whole program. It was With the same type of local land commission they who figured out how much land was to be functioning in more than 10,600 villages in bought and from whom; they kept the records Japan, 150,000 or more people received this of the transactions, and they received and first leadership training and 50,000 of them were studied the instructions that came to the com- from the farm tenant group. So quite aside mission office. In many villages they were real from the many benefits which the new owner teachers of the commission members. farmers are securing from the land they have By the time it had been agreed which fami- purchased under the land reform program, the lies could buy which tracts of land, it began to way in which the transfers were carried out be widely believed by the tenant families and has in a very short time produced a sizeable by the families from whom land had been pur- group of potential new leaders in rural Japan. 12. Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program The field trip of October 13 to 20, 1949, on which Ladejinsky here reports, took place shortly after his first field trip in Taiwan. It possesses a special interest in that it represents the only work Ladejinsky ever did on the mainland of China; it came at a time when the Communist forces had already taken over most of the country and were threatening the southwest, the only territory still controlled-though not for long-by Chiang Kai-shek's National Government. This lends poignancy to Ladejinsky's observation, toward the very end of this paper, in which he was impressed by "the enthusiastic response of the tenants to the 114 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 reform recently instituted." It is quite clear, he states, "that a wise government could have made a good deal of political capital and perhaps achieved military stability if the farm aid made its appearance in good time. After all, China's armies are peasant armies." Unfortunately, as Dr. Moyer has pointed out, by the time the land reform in Szechwan was instituted, it was already in the nature of "a rear guard action." Discussing the nonimplementation of earlier rent reduction measures decreed by the Executive Yuan, Ladejinsky observes, dryly, "Nothing was done about this very limited of measures to ease the burden of the tenants; the record has not a blemish of accomplishment." Ladejinsky, it is shown here, could be a doer as well as an observer in the field. On discovering a weakness in the enabling regulations, he went straightaway to the acting governor of Szechwan and persuaded him to issue a corrective order within ten days after termination of the tour. Since he was aware that this report would be read by a number of U.S. officials, Ladejinsky closes the report by drawing some plainspoken lessons from this experience for U.S. policy. This paper, like the Taiwan paper preceding, took the form of a memorandum addressed to Chiang Mon-Lin, chairman of the JCRR, dated November 7, 1949. It appeared in General Report no. 1 of the JCRR. General Observations other hand extends over the mountainous Chungking area. The flatlands are, in most ON OCTOBER 13 1 SET OUT FROM Chungking cases, mere narrow wedges between two moun- in the company of Mr. Tang and Commissioner tains. Practically the entire cultivated land of Sun Lien Chuan to observe tenancy conditions the prefecture consists of a series of elongated and the application of the rent reduction pro- or semicircled terrace strips of 1 to 2 mou in grain in the third prefecture. In the course of size. Infinite toil and care are required to pre- the field trip, which lasted seven days, we vent the washing away of the terrace bound- stopped at numerous contract registration aries. The fertility of the soil is poorer than points, village offices, tenant homes and talked that of the Chengtu plain; artificial irrigation, about the program with a great many tenants which is one of the outstanding features of the landlords and local officials. The observations first prefecture and made the prefecture's rice on tenancy in the third prefecture and the rent crop failure proof, is almost absent here. The reduction program to improve those conditions rice crop in the third prefecture depends en- are contained in the pages that follow, but the tirely upon rainfall which occasionally falls basic conclusion may be stated at the outset: short of requirements. The result is that the while the rent reduction program is only at the yields here are approximately 50 percent below early stages of application, it is quite certain those enjoyed by the farmers of the first pre- that, if the current policy of brooking no oppo- fecture. sition from the landlords is continued, the pro- In one important respect, however, both gram will be carried out in the course of the prefectures are very much alike: the tenantry is next two to three months (that is, the majority extremely poor. The tenants of the third pre- of the tenants will reduce their customary rental fecture pay a lower rental than do the tenants payments by one-fourth). of the second, but because of lower and uncer- The first and third prefectures are in Szech- tain yields and smaller holdings they are worse wan province, but they are miles apart and not off than the Chengtu tenants. The tenant's only because of the 300 miles which separate problem of securing food for his family is more them. The first prefecture extends over the acute than in the first prefecture. All other entire flat-as-a-table, well-irrigated, rich soil of "amenities" of life are in roughly the same pro- the Chengtu plain. The third prefecture on the portions. It is obvious, therefore, that a reduc- Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 115 tion in rent by one-fourth is a most important But terraced agriculture calls for enormous ap- measure to increase the tenant's food supply plication of labor, which is difficult to com- and to strengthen him economically. And, as pensate even under favorable soil, climatic, and will be pointed out elsewhere in this memo, the ownership conditions-the more so when, as in reduction in rent is likely to bring in its wake at the third prefecture, the cited conditions leave least the beginnings of the much needed but much to be desired. long overdue social and political changes. The soil lacks the natural fertility of the heavy, black loam of the first prefecture, and from the point of view of water supply it is Tenancy Conditions still worse off. Szechwan as a whole has good irrigation possibilities, and the first prefecture The third prefecture, with a population of over has realized them through an irrigation system 5 million and an area of 7,000 square miles, is created some 2,000 years ago by the famous one of the larger prefectures of Szechwan. The engineers Lee Pin and Lee Erlong, father and nearby Chungking, the wartime capital of son. No such condition prevails in the third China, places this prefecture in a special cate- prefecture; the farmer depends almost entirely gory. But more important is the fact that the upon rainfall, which is known to fail occasion- mass education movement and the Peipeh spe- ally at the critical periods. The combination of cial district are both in the third prefecture. soil and water conditions is chiefly responsible The mass education movement stresses the for rice yields of only 0.8 to 1 picul per mou- organization of farmers into cooperatives and less than that in years of low precipitation through the use of literacy classes to explain -as against the virtually never failing 2 to 2.2 the advantages and desirability of cooperative piculs in the first prefecture. action. The Peipeh special district is \worth But even in conditions of higher yields, most noting for the remarkable work carried out by of the farmers of the third prefecture have to its administrative commissioner, Lu Tze-Ying contend with a land tenure system which placed and his brother, Lu Tzu-fu, in the creation of them on one of the lowest rungs of the eco- the modern city of Peipeh as well as in the nomic ladder. Data on land ownership for the carrying out of a land ownership project, which, entire prefecture are not available, but infor- though modest in scale, was of national signifi- mation dealing with the Peipeh special district, cance. But neither of the mentioned develop- which we visited, is revealing. About 60 percent ments succeeded or could have succeeded in of the population (10,000 farm families) lives creating conditions from which the mass of the on land (a rather low proportion for the pre- peasantry could derive even a semblance of fecture as a whole). Of these farm families, well-being. Peipeh remained a small island approximately 70 percent are tenants, 14 per- within the vast ocean of a peasantry, maintain- cent part tenants, and only 16 percent owner ing its existence in the traditional way. A trip cultivators. Inquiries at fairly large farm meet- from Chungking in any direction, a visit in any ings indicated a somewhat lower proportion of fromage, tlki win any ntenants, but in no case did they represent less village, a talk with any number of farmers-all thn5to6pectofhear pputi. bear ample testimony to that effect. The reasons More than half of the land is owned by ab- underlying this state of affairs are partly nature sentee landlords who reside in nearby towns or (climate and soil); partly man-made (rising in Chungking. The land is farmed by tenants opulation pressing on the land); and, finally, who pay a minimum of 60 percent of the prin- ack of interest on the part of the Nationalist cipal crops (chiefly rice, and to a much smaller government in the welfare of those who till the extent, wheat). Rentals as high as 70 percent ;oil of China. are not exceptions. The third prefecture is one of the hilly re- These terms of land tenure are typical not gions of Szechwan. The remarkable system of only of the Peipeh special district but also of terraced agriculture almost overcame this handi- the other hsiens. Coming as we did from the cap; it explains why 2.3 million acres or half of first prefecture, we could not but notice the the total area of the prefecture is cultivated. difference in rent. Since 80 to 90 percent of 116 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the main crop is the customary rent in the first with or without duration clauses, and tenants prefecture, the 60 to 70 percent in the third submit to it for fear of dispossession. The latter prefecture did not seem exorbitant at the first means total dispossession since the house and glance. Yet a further probing into the farm farm buildings occupied by the tenant belong practices of the prefecture revealed that they to the landlord. The impression we carried away are, in effect, just as high and with an edge in is that tenants have no bargaining power what- favor of the tenants of the first prefecture. Be- soever; that the contract as a means of securing cause of scarcity of rainfall in the spring for certain rights for the tenants was worth no rice planting, few of the rice fields of the third more than the flimsy sheet of paper it was. prefecture are utilized for winter crops; they written on; that the tenant-landlord arrange- are mainly water reservoirs for the planting of ments are primarily a matter of the landlord's rice in the usually dry spring. The riddle of the discretion; and that the courts, the magistrates huge pools of water instead of fields, first caught and local officials have, in the main, given sight of from the plane, became readily under- sanction to that discretion. No moral judgment standable when the farmers explained the whys of the landlord is intended here; what is re- of agricultural practices in this region. In the corded is an expression of the behavior of the first prefecture on the other hand, the never- "economic man" in the midst of a continuous failing irrigation system provides the land with struggle for survival among the tenants. That all its water requirements; the fields are free, struggle is the keenest competition for the therefore, for the planting of winter crops, privilege of cultivating a few moU of the land- which belong to the tenants. Only a small mi- lord*s land. The landlord, free from any legal nority of the tenants of the third prefecture and moral restraint, merely takes advantage of have such crops to fall back on. The winter the opportunity. crops of the first prefecture, while of relatively In China as in a number of other countries small importance when compared with the rice with a large farm population pressing on a crop, more than offset the rental difference be- limited amount of land, the lot of the tenant is tween 80 to 90 and 60 to 70 percent of the conditioned not only by the high rental but main crop. the fact that he cultivates a few rather than The landlord-tenant relationship is regular- many acres. The third prefecture is a good illus- ized by a written contract. Oral agreements are tration of that truism. Data on the amount of rare, and we did not encounter a single tenant land rented by a tenant are not available, but who rents land on that basis. A number of con- inquiries among tenants and landlords offer tracts were examined and discussed with ten- fairly reliable information on this point. It ap- ants and landlords at considerable detail. The pears that, whereas in the first prefecture a characteristic feature of a written contract is tenant cultivates an average holding of approxi- not what it contains but what it omits; most of mately 20 to 25 moU, in the third prefecture them, for example, fail to specify their dura- the tenant must be content with about 10 to 15 tion. The tenant is thereby denied security of moU, or 2 or slightly more than 2 acres. As- tenure. The contract specifies the rented acre- suming that he cultivates the upper limit and age; the rental; the deposit or key money (about all of the land is devoted to rice (usually not which much more later); and the extras on the case) and the yields are normal, the tenant New Year's day (although not in every in- can harvest a maximum of 15 piculs of rice. A stance), which may consist of such assorted minimum rental of 60 percent would leave items as so many carties of beans, rice straw, him with 6 piculs, admittedly a small return chickens, and ducks. Neither landlord nor ten- even under the assumed favorable conditions. ant was familiar with the practice common in The economic consequences of the mentioned other countries which entitles a tenant to cer- conditions are quite apparent without any re- tain compensations for improvements on the course to standard-of-living studies, with all land. their paraphernalia of measuring the imnmeasur- A time limit does not necessarily insure for able in China. The naked eye and the sifting the tenant security of tenure. The landlords of the statements of the tenants concerning the have been in the habit of changing contracts, things they live by are quite sufficient. The Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 117 matters of clothing and shelter did not call for It became obvious to us that few are the much investigation. The attire spoke for itself, tenants who can make both ends meet from and it became clear to us why and how a ten- agricultural activities alone; the great majority ant makes a cotton shirt do five or more years must engage in every known nonagricultural .of service. Their so-called homes ("so-called" activity that serves the needs of the community. even from the point of view of their neigh- At one meeting we had with us a tenant tailor, bors, owner cultivators) and their contents a tenant shoemaker, a tenant chairmaker, and can boast of no worldly goods worth mention- in fact some twenty-odd dual occupation ten- oing. We visited a few, and the living quarters, ants. Some of the occupations were typically tool shed, and storage room all spoke the same Chinese; when we pointed to a tenant, asking story: on how little man can suffer through a him how he manages to pay his way through relatively long life of privation, tenancy, the tenant admitted, hesitatingly and The matter of sufficiency or insufficiency under the good humored prodding from the of food on observing the tenants about us was audience, that he also is chair coolie, special- not as easily discernible. We could not tell izing in carrying brides on their wedding day! without questioning whether tenant Chiang All in all, on a field trip through the third Mon-lin lives on rice that he wants most, plus prefecture one fails to observe a "healthy rural a dash of meat and fish, or on sweet potatoes life," or a rural life as the much-talked about plus rice and no meat and fish. Numerous re- way of life. One rather observes an ill-fed, ill- corded answers show, and with no exception, clothed, ill-sheltered, overworked, and over- that the principal rice producers of the third exploited peasantry, chained to farming for the prefecture have but one thought in mind: how lack of alternative occupations. Hardly anyone to secure enough rice for themselves and their can fail to see that if unaided much longer they families. A tenant called upon to tell just how would sink completely in the mire of poverty. much rice he must have to go about his work But aid is finally making its appearance in the presented, what seemed to us then, a startling form of a rent reduction program. bit of information since confirmed by many others: he needed fifteen fair-sized bowls of rice a day, or five bowls per meal. With a Remedial Efforts family of six, tenant Shen Tsung Han requires 6 piculs of polished rice a year. The same ten- The rent reduction idea is nor a new one. Ir ant was cultivating 15 mou of land, of which dates back to the Kuomintang Party Conference 12 were under rice. He harvested 9.6 piculs, in October of 1926, when a 25 percent redUC- the landlord receiving 5.7 piculs as rent, and tion in rent was officially made the most im- the tenant 3.9 piculs of unpolished rice, or 2 piculs of polished. His rice deficit was 4 piculs. portn Temain um rng s agrarea t- form. The maximum rent was assumed to be The tenant admitted that he could not afford . all the rice that he wants and needs, and his 50 percent, and the 25 percent reduction was to have created a standard rent of 37.5 percent of problem is how to secure the major part of it the main crop. The realization of this platform Here is where, in addition to the secondary .plank would have eased the rent burden of the crops, the ducks, the chickens, the occasional plan wul hv aseder uren f the goose, the eggs and the hogs raised by some of tenants, but it was never given a fair trial. Be- the tenants, come into the picture. The hasty tween late 1926 and the end of 1927, Chekiang, suggestions that in all probability they are con- Kwantung, Hunan, Hupeh, and Kiangsu prov- sumed on the farm was met with an outburst of inces have actually issued rent reduction regula- laughter, as if to underscore the naivet6 of the tions; but the split between the Kuomintang visitor. They eat meat only on special occasion. and the Communists in 1927 and the fierce Mainly they raise fowl and hogs for sale and opposition of the landlords to the scheme served exchange the proceeds for the much needed to impart to it a red and fatal tinge. This and rice, salt, and few other basic items without a the deliberate obstruction of the scheme by the modicum of which a tenant cannot maintain provincial and local administrations caused the his substandard of living. idea of rent reduction to die aborning. 118 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 The immediate postwar period witnessed a also promulgated on the same day. These three flurry of interest in rent reduction. In October documents constitute the basic rent reduction of 1945 the Executive Yuan decreed a one- legislation. fourth reduction in rent for all of China, for one year only. This was by way of counter- balancing an item in the same order that re- The Program in Action lieved landlords from paying taxes for two years, one year in Japanese-occupied China and Mindful of the past experience and of the fact one year in unoccupied China. Taxes were not that in Szechwan rent reduction was never even collected, but it appeared too late to do any- attempted, it was but natural to view the cur- thing about rent reduction. On September 20, rent effort of application and enforcement of 1946, the Executive Yuan decreed a two-year the program with considerable misgivings. For rent reduction, one-eighth each year, and back the same reason official statements on the to the customary rent beginning with the third progress of the reform were heavily discounted. year. The tenants of the formerly Japanese- The observations and conclusions are based occupied China were to become the recipients mainly on talks with the tenants and landlords; of the benefaction in 1946 and 1947, while the unannounced visits to contract registration tenants of the nonoccupied China were to get points and village offices; examination of con- their share in 1947 and 1918. The provincial ttacts old and new; and close questioning of assembly of Szechwan reviewed the order of local officials who deal directly with the farmers. Executive Yuan and decided to shift its appli- The third prefecture is made up of ten hsiens cation to 1948 and 1949. and one special district, containing a total of It is a matter of public record that the Ex- 770,000 farm families, or 240,000 more farm ecutive Yuan's decree was honored only in families than in Taiwan. We visited only three breach. Nothing was done about this very hsies an a n i.lae oices and many hsiens and a dozen village offices and many limited of measures to ease the burden of the . more contract registration centers. The sample tenants; the record has not a blemish of ac- may not be considered overly large, but we feel complishment. it was quite representative of the activities, What the Nationalist government would not grant the peasants in the fullness of time, at the probles,isucc or faie of the prr an investigator could have noted in most parts peak of its prestige and power, it is granting of the third prefecture. now when time is short and the regime is at In the middle of October it was much too its lowest ebb. But regardless of the setting, early to answer the main question: Is the rent the rent reduction plank of the Kuomintang is reduction program in the third prefecture a at long last being put to a test by General success or a failure? The real test of the success- Chang Chun, former Prime Minister and cur- ful application and enforcement of the program rently High Commissioner of Military and is whether the majority of the tenants have Political Affairs of the Southwest. The outline paid rent in accordance with the provisions of of the scheme is contained in the "General the regulation. If they did, the conclusion is Regulation on the Enforcement of Farm Rent obvious: The implementation is an accom- Reduction," issued on July 31, 1949. The plished fact. We found, however, that hardly central point of the program is that from 1949 any rent, on the old or new basis, has yet been on, the amount of farm rent originally agreed paid. This finding was one of the first clues upon by the landowner and the tenant or col- that called our attention to strength of the cam- lected according to custom shall be reduced by paign to carry out the program. one-fourth, and no increase in rent shall be Normally, in the third prefecture tenants pay allowed henceforth. The regulation to enforce their rent between September 15 and October the program in Szechwan was promulgated by 15, but the program had not really gotten under the provincial government on August 29, 1949, way until about the 10th or 15th of October. while a separate regulation or registration and These time factors were a source of consider- exchange of the old contracts for new ones was able apprehension concerning the outcome of Field Trip in Szechiwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 119 the program. Talks with the farmers proved example set by the commissioner has percolated that the fears were groundless, since the bulk down the lower layers of the administration. of the rents remained unpaid. One had the feeling that the administrative Many a tenant was questioned on this seem- machine is geared to the successful promulga- ingly abnormal development. The answers can tion of this program. The officialdom, which be summed up as follows: They heard about a can greatly influence the course of the program, rent reduction scheme even prior to August 15, is for once in a constructive rather than destruc- when the High Commissioner of Military and tive frame of mind. Second, the commissioner's Political Affairs of Southwest made public the timely steps have had much to do with keeping July 31 regulation. The publication of the the tenants from paying the traditional rent document on the day when the payment of rent during the latter part of August. Such payment usually begins created hesitancy among the could have had a fatal effect upon rent reduc- tenants. To be sure, Szechwan landlordism is tion in 1949. It is fair to conclude that the sufficiently aggressive and powerful that it could current attitude of the administration augurs have overcome the wavering tenant, particu- well for the execution of the reform. larly since the landlords knew that the govern- There are other guideposts that point to the ment of Szechwan would issue its own rent possible outcome of the program. These are: regulation only at the end of August. the registration of the contracts, the exchange This likely development was frustrated, how- of the old contracts for the new ones, the trend ever, by Commissioner Sun of the third pre- of rent payment for the 1949 crops, and the fecture, a leader of the mass education move- efforts of some landlords to dispossess tenants. ment. He took matters into his own hands and All these elements offer a good test of the atti- on August 20, nine days before the government tude of landlord and tenant toward the rent of Szechwan acted, issued a statement to the reduction reform, and they measure the degree people outlining the main provisions of rent of success or failure of the reform. reduction, pointing out that rent reduction Article 2 of the August 29 "Regulation applies to the third prefecture, and that he in- Registration and Revision of Farm Contracts" tended to carry out the program with all the directs landlord and tenant to appear jointly in means at his disposal. Seventy thousand copies the village office for the registration of the old of his statement were distributed throughout contract. A copy of a registration blank gives the prefecture. Commissioner Sun called a con- the name of the landlord and tenant, rented ference of the magistrates of the ten hsiens, acreage, original rents, and new rent. This is the chairmen of the hsien assemblies (land- the first step of giving legal sanction to the lords all), and the chiefs of the land tax bu- new program, and for the first time in the reaus. He instructed the magistrates to tell the history of Szechwan (and the prefecture in people of their respective hsiens that: (a) rent question) there will be gathered the raw ma- reduction will and must be carried out in ac- terial from which an accurate statistical picture cordance with the law, (b) all old contracts of land ownership can be drawn. Article 3 of must be registered and new ones issued, (c) the same regulation stipulates that, having com- failure of the landlord and tenant to renew the pleted the registration, a new contract shall be contract is subject to punishment, and (d) if drawn up and the original contract cancelled by any rent already paid is in excess of the rent "chopping" thereon: "This contract has been stipulated in the new contract, that excess must registered and thus nullified according to law." be turned back to the tenant. Article 6 provides that if the landlord fails to The energy displayed by Sun and his in- make a joint application for registration, the sistence that the program must be implemented tenant may do so himself; he cannot, however, is not synonymous with compliance on the part secure a new contract unless the landlord and of the landlords. But the activities of the chief tenant jointly apply for it. What the tenant can officer of the third prefecture are significant do is withhold the payment of rent until the for two reasons: First, they are a far cry from landlord consents to a joint application. the sabotage of similar programs indulged in The regulation on registration and exchange by officers in similar positions in the past. The of contracts was promulgated on August 29, but 120 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the actual work had not begun till late Septem- problem is how to induce all the landlords to ber-early October. In one village of the Chia register and exchange contracts. Yung district, registration only started on Octo- Many offices we visited were working over- ber 17, the day we visited it. Under the circum- time, writing notices to landlords that they stances, the work cannot possibly be completed must join the tenant for registration and ex- by the end of October, as called for by the regu- change of contract. Some offices, in fact, have lation. This in itself is no cause for alarm. The begun their activities in this manner. This is program is new, and much more time should particularly true in the hsiens close to Chung- have been allowed to this phase originally. The king, where most of the absentee landlords live. selection and briefing of 506 registrars and 103 Chen Tsi Liu, chief of the land division of supervisors is in itself a time-consuming chore. Chungking municipality, himself a landlord and More significant is the fact that, now that knowing something about the behavior of land- the work is under way, the progress is being lords, told us that he notified the absentees in impeded by the reluctance of an inestimable writing on October 3, the first day of registra- number of landlords, chiefly absentee landlords, tion. Why? "The landlords are so busy in to come to the village office and apply for regis- Chungking with their nonagricultural activities tration and exchange of contracts. The resident that the entire rent reduction program may landlords do not present a serious problem; have passed them by," said he with his tongue most of them live up to this provision of the in his cheek. They must make their appearance regulations. Those who hold out cannot resist between the 6th and 18th of October, but on very long the pressure generated by the pro- the 13th, Chen was already planning to send gram activities all about them. It should be out a second notice on the 18th-not called for noted, too, that the absentees in the third pre- by the regulation-in order to give them, as he fecture are not nearly so numerous, rich, or put it, "no excuse whatever for not registering." influential as those of the first prefecture. It is Having done that, the tenants will register the easier, therefore, to overcome their opposition. contracts unilaterally, and registration will be There is no question as to the attitude of the completed on November 10. This was the only tenants. They throng the village offices or spe- instance where a second notice was resorted to; cially created registration points with or without in every other place we visited the one notice their landlords, old contracts in hand, eager to prescribed by the regulation was being issued make the change. We watched many a group- when needed, and tenants were permitted to landlord, tenant, and registrar-in the process register when the landlords failed to respond. of examining the old contract, registering and The attitude of the absentee landlords can voiding it, and issuing a new one. It takes about do no more than delay the registration. Few 30 to 45 minutes to complete the transaction, tenants are influenced by the recalcitrant land- The tenant goes through this novel experience lords. It is safe to say that, with or without the with the seriousness befitting the occasion. For benefit of the presence of the landlords, the altogether different reasons the landlord, too, is tenants will have registered their old contracts a picture of concentration. He is engaged in a by early November. The same cannot be said most unorthodox act, signing over for the bene- about the exchange of contracts, since it calls fit of the tenant a few piculs of rice which for a joint application. Tenants have resorted to normally would belong to him and he cannot such tactics as sending out sedan chairs to carry but realize that the new contract is a more the landlords to the villages. At least in one businesslike, less one-sided, landlord-dictated place two landlords succumbed to this type of document. To the tenant the registration and persuasion. There is a more telling way of new contract is the one proof that rent reduc- making landlord comply; this is the strict en- tion is a reality. A copy of the contract is de- forcement of the regulation provision of "no posited with the village office, and this auto- contract-no rent." matically reduces the arbitrariness with which The commissioner of the third prefecture a landlord treated a contract in the past. The and his administrative machine are actively put- most ignorant and tradition-bound tenant ap- suing that line. The mass education movement preciates the significance of the event. The only through its adult education classes and coopera- Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 121 tives has been enlisted for the same endeavor. program is just one order after another, issued Willy-nilly, a landlord must come down or send by the governor of Szechwan, or the High Com- his agent to collect the rent. A tenant could missioner's Office of the Military and Political then exact the price of rent, the contract. We Affairs of the Southwest. Time does not wait are not prepared to say that all tenants thus any longer in Nationalist China, and this cer- involved would necessarily do that, although tainly applies to the rent reduction program in questions and answers on this point show that Szechwan. Hence the advisability of quick ac- they intend to do that. It is well to recall at this tion to cure the soft spots of the reform. There point that in the third prefecture the absentees is reason to believe that the governor's order represent a minority of the landlords and that and the publication in the Chengtu press there is no village where an exchange of con- (October 26) by the order of the governor of tracts had not taken place. Moreover, the energy the names of the leading obstructionists of the with which the government is implementing rent program will speed up the exchange of the program will in all probability strengthen contracts and that of the program as a whole. the resolve of the tenants to secure a new con- In the third prefecture as in the first, in tract. By the same token the opposition of the Kwangsi, and in Taiwan, the tenants are not landlord will be weakened. The commissioner familiar with some of the most important parts of the third prefecture may be quite right in of the rent reduction provisions, let alone with stating as he did that all the contracts will be the details. They all know, however, the most exchanged by the end of November, but while significant point of the program, which is that we were there not all the evidence was in. customary rents must be reduced by one-fourth. The exchange of contracts would not have Even the tenant in the hinterland of the pre- been in question if Article 6 of the "Regula- fecture, who admitted that he had already paid tion on Registration and Revision of Farm his rent on the old basis-even he knew of the Contracts" had granted the tenant the right to one-fourth reduction. apply for a new contract if the landlord refused Perhaps no other question came in for such to make the application jointly. This limitation detailed consideration as the one on rent pay- may not have serious consequences in the third ment. We raised it on all occasions and in all prefecture, but its adverse effect upon the pro- manner of places where a farmer or farmers gram in the first prefecture is beyond question. were present. We were mindful of the fact that It was urgent that corrective measures be taken normally no tenant would admit to paying or promptly. With that in mind, on October 29 intending to pay anything but the legal rent. we conferred with Acting Governor of Szech- The tenant referred to in the preceding para- wan Men Kwang Pei, Executive Secretary of graph is no exception. But compliance on the the Land Commission Yuan Su Chun, and Com- part of every tenant (or landlord), while de- missioner of Social Welfare Wang Tsung sirable, is not absolutely necessary to insure Chian. After a thorough examination of ways the success of the program. During our stay in and means of overcoming the continued oppo- the third prefecture, which was the early stage sition of some of the absentee landlords, it was of the program's implementation, the valid finally agreed that an order be issued by the question was whether a considerable majority governor, stating that, if within one week of of the tenants intend to live up to the rent the publication of the order a landlord fails to provision. make a joint application for a new contract, Developments in the next month or two will the new contract will be given to the tenant furnish the answer, but in the meantime we are upon his application. The tenant shall not pay inclined to the view that the answer will be in the rent until such times as the landlord signs the affirmative. From our discussions with the the contract. The order was issued by the gov- tenants, we carried away the strong impression ernor on October 30. that the tenants appreciate in a very practical A student of law would probably raise his way the difference between paying less rent eyebrows at the rough-and-ready manner of rather than more-that the economic position solving contractual relationships. But the fact of the tenants, particularly the need to buy rice of the matter is that the current rent reduction during the greater part of the year, will compel 122 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 them to take advantage of the benefits of rent because they wished to cultivate it themselves. reductions. Their actions to date support the Dispossession in any part of Szechwan would conclusion. For the time being most tenants inflict upon the tenant a major disaster, since have either paid no rent at all or have made it meant leaving the land and the buildings token payments. They expect to pay the rent or and with hardly any opportunity of acquiring the balance sometime after the renewal of the another rented holding. contract. If some of the contracts are not re- Any drafter of a rent reduction program in newed and the rent is paid, the transactions are Szechwan, if at all familiar with landlord-tenant likely to be on the basis of the one-fourth re- relationships, should have had no difficulty in duction. The tenant will insist upon it, for there foreseeing the eviction attempts and draw the is the growing awareness that the landlord's regulations accordingly. Actually, the regula- weapon of realization is blunted. tions are most deficient on this all-important A rather significant straw in the wind is the point. Article 2 of the "General Regulation of episode that took place in the Tayi hsien of the Enforcement of Rent Reduction" of July the fourth prefecture. A considerable acreage in 31, 1939, states that "As to matters left un- that hsien belongs to General Liu Wen-hui, provided in this regulation, the provisions of governor of Sikang, and a very influential man the Land Law and other relevant laws and de- in Szechwan. In the middle of October General crees shall be binding." The Land Law has laid Liu sent one of his estate managers with a de- down a set of provisions, which, if enforced, tachment of troops to collect rent, and on the would make the termination of farm lease diffi- old basis. The tenants being familiar with the cult, if not impossible. Thus a lease can be general's practice, did something they have not terminated only in the following instances: done before: they armed themselves for the (a) when a tenant dies and leaves no heirs, coining event. When the manager and the (b) when the tenant waives the right of culti- troops appeared on the scene, the former was vations, (c) when the tenant sublets the land told that they intended to defend their rights to another person, (d) when the rent is in under the rent reduction scheme and will not arrears for two years, and (e) when the land- permit the collection of the customary rent. lord decides to cultivate the land himself. In Whereupon the manager proceeded to collect the latter case the tenant must be given notice the reduced rent. This is indeed an unique ex- a year in advance. perience for both the general and the tenants, The provisions are reasonable, except that an experience that speaks well for the progress even a superficial knowledge with landlord- of the program. tenant lease arrangements shows that they have One of the unfortunate by-products of the never been enforced; the tenants have only the rent reduction program is the widespread at- haziest notion about their existence, and failure tempt on the part of the medium and small to spell them out now leaves matters pretty landlords to dispossess the tenants from all or much where they stood before. Nor does Arti- part of the rented land. This development be- cle 12 of the "Regulations on the Enforcement came apparent immediately upon the publica- of Rent Reduction in Szechwan Province" tion of the rent reduction regulations and issued on August 29, which merely states that before the implementation of the program had upon the expiration of the lease the landlord begun. At virtually every meeting we en- can take the land back if he decided to become countered tenants who are faced with this prob- an take tlad b edecie to bec lem. The number of such cases in all of the . third prefecture is difficult to determine, but if protection. It is a well-known fact that tenant the Chungking municipality with its 8,000 ten- contracts in Szechwan seldom contain a time ant families out of a total of 11,000 farm fami- limit and that the life of a contract is largely lies is anything like a representative sample, determined by the landlord. For this reason then the situation is indeed serious. Chen Tsi the opening part of Article 12, "If upon the Lin, chief of the Land Division, informed us expiration of the contracted period of lease . . ." that approximately 30 percent of the landlords [italics W. L.1 has little relation to the existing have requested the return of land, presumably conditions, and deliberately or otherwise has Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 123 given the appearance of sanctioning the efforts the tenants themselves, are quite sufficient to of the landlords to dispossess tenants. deflate the landlords' threat of eviction. When We are glad to record the field observation the dust of the rent reduction reform finally that there is an enormous gap between wanting settles, the tenants of Szechwan will have to dispossess a tenant and actually dispossessing achieved a measure of security of tenure. And him. The act of omission on the part of the next to rent reduction that is the most impor- provincial government was being corrected tant thing. while we traveled about the third prefecture by One of the items that seems to exercise ten- the refusal of the tenant to move and by the ants most in the process of exchanging con- announcement of the chief officer of the prefec- tracts is how much deposit, key, or security ture that no landlord will be permitted to take money should be inscribed in the new contract. back the land unless with the consent of the The deposit money is an old Chinese practice tenant. The commissioner's statement was no which at one time meant paying the landlord idle threat; this was apparent as we listened to a sum of money in exchange for obtaining the a number of landlords pleading before the land rights of permanent tenancy. More recently it commissions for the right of eviction. It is has become a payment for a leasehold to be re- worth noting that such incidents point up a turned to the tenant upon the termination of break in the traditional freedom with which the the lease, although the ostensible reason for the landlord treated the tenant. Therein lies an deposit is to insure the payment of the rent. important consequence of the application of This system of rent deposit is particularly domi- the program even at this relatively early stage. nant in places where industry and commerce The step taken by Sun was an expedient to are poorly developed, communications difficult, meet an emergency situation; it is not a strong and the number of tenants unusually large. foundation upon which the tenant's security of Szechwan fits all these conditions. The amount tenure could be built. The foundation is now of the deposit varies from region to region as being provided posthaste by the provincial gov- well as within region. A landlord sets the de- ernment of Szechwan. posit on the basis of what the traffic will bear. When the "Regulation on the Enforcement In the third prefecture it ranges from 10, 20, of Farm Rent Reduction" was first published and more silver dollars per mou. In all cases (August 29, 1949), Chiang Mon-lin, chairman where we inquired into the value of the deposit of JCRR, noted the inadequacy of Article 12; when originally made, it was almost twice the and our own observations of the progress of value of the crops harvested by the tenant. the program in the first prefecture amply con- It is difficult to describe the utter confusion firmed Dr. Chiang's misgivings. The very first and bewilderment among the tenants on the day in the third prefecture told the same story subject of deposit money at the present time, of threatened evictions. In order to arrest this and certainly on no other matter have they development, JCRR had suggested to the pro- been so eager to unburden themselves and with vincial government a change in regulations that so much bitterness. The cause is not far to seek: would secure for the tenant a three-year lease Of the few tangible assets that a tenant possesses from the date of issuance of the new contract. the deposit money is the most important one. On October 21, Governor L. D. Wang of In recent years that asset has been melting f)zechwan acted accordingly. The three-year away; and now that the time has come to state lease provision must be inscribed in every con- its amount once again, many a tenant realizes tract. The new contracts already issued must what he has known all along but refused quite be corrected. to admit, namely, that his deposit is all but A great deal more work and no little con- gone. fusion is in store for those closely connected The importance of a deposit to the tenant with the promulgation of the program. This is and particularly the role it might play in the a small price, however, compared with the value future became quite clear in the course of a of the enacted measure. The latter, coupled dinner conversation with the commissioner of with the actions already taken by the prefec- the third prefecture on the eve of the field trip. tural officials and the resistance displayed by Commissioner Sun was enlarging on the possi- 124 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 bility of a land purchase scheme after the com- reference to tenant's 700 dollars has disap- pletion of the rent reduction program. There peared, and with it the tenant's most important was no disagreement with the soundness of his tangible assets. Now that tenant is about to get suggestion, and we inquired how he was going a new contract as part of the rent reduction to finance the project. "Why," said he, "we progress, he insists that the item under "de- shall do it through a land bank." "Well," said posit" should read "700 silver dollars," and not we, "and what are you going to use for money?" "four piculs of rice." "Simple," said the commissioner. "We shall put This case is quite typical, although there are the deposit money to work." He proceeded to many variations on the same theme. The tell us that a survey of a district made some amount of land and deposit are usually smaller. years back revealed that the total amount of de- The shift from the substantial deposit to almost posit money represented from 15 to 20 percent no deposit may have come about not in one of the price of the land and that was typical of change but in the two or three changes of con- the entire third prefecture. We agreed with the tract over a period of years, each change re- commissioner that such a volume of deposit ducing the value of the original deposit. Every money could serve as a good foundation for a change in contract was the landlord's insurance land purchase program. We agreed also to in- against inflation. quire in some detail into this problem in the The number of deposit cases is difficult to course of our field trip. We did just that, and, estimate accurately; a show of hands at well- sad to report but true, the resources of the attended farm meetings indicated that more would-be land bank kept on dwindling as we than a third of the tenants present were deposit continued on our trip; and by the end of sick. Officials of the Chungking municipality the trip it became clear that the commissioner's believe that the percentage is much higher; they information was quite dated. The money was estimate that in the municipality 80 percent of not there in a great many cases. Inflation and, the contracts were changed by the landlords im- above all, the privilege of the landlord of chang- mediately after the war. Whatever the land- ing contracts at will have seen to that. lords' motives, the fact is that large numbers Take, for instance, the case of one of the of tenants in the third prefecture became sepa- biggest of tenants, Yen Yan Tsu of the Taiping rated from their deposits. Commissioner Sun village of the Chungking municipality. In 1929 had to admit finally that a land purchase scheme he rented 50 mon of land, equally divided be- through the use of deposits could not possibly tween paddy (rice) and dry land. He paid the succeed. The affected tenants lack the means landlord 700 silver dollars as deposit money. of renting a few mou of land if faced with the At the then prevailing purchase price of rice necessity, let alone of making a substantial in- land, tenant Yen could have bought 10 mou of itial payment toward the purchase of the same land, while in terms of the value of the entire mou. holding the deposit money represented from Whether through ignorance or design, the 25 to 30 percent of the value. rent regulation contains no reference to the de- And now for the tale of woe as revealed by posit problem. It accepts the practice, a prac- the dispute between the landlord and tenant tice that has not improved with age. The theory before signing the new contract. It developed that deposit money serves as a security for non- that in 1946 the landlord decided that 700 payment of rent is not in accord with the facts. silver dollars he received in 1929 depreciated We heard of no disputes on that score, and it to a point that their real worth was no more is quite understandable; failure to pay rent than four piculs of rice, which could be pur- means dispossession, and no tenant wishes to chased at between 30 to 40 silver dollars. Hay- face that prospect. It would have been the ing reached this decision, he cancelled the old better part of wisdom if the rent regulations contract and made the tenant sign a new one, provided for some restrictions upon the deposit where he entered the tenant's deposit as four system with an eye to its eventual elimination. piculs of rice. Being a man of sound business The rent program of Taiwan provides for that. principles, the landlord did not fail to take back It is startling, too, that the drafters of the rent the tenant's receipt for the 700 dollars. All program failed to take notice of the wave of Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 125 postwar change of contracts and its real mean- missions in every hsien (county), municipality, ing. hsiang (village), or tsen (market town). Their Tenants are most vociferous now about the primary functions are to assist in the work of contract changes and changes in the deposit rent reduction and to settle tenancy disputes. value, but in those days they accepted them The hsien or municipality land commission is with hardly a protest. They were given a con- essentially a government body. One finds on tract to sign and that was that. It is in the plus the commission the magistrate or mayor; a side of the current program that they feel safe representative from the hsien assembly, court, in calling for the settlement of the old deposit and farmers' association; a rent supervisor; and score, and with some measure of success. two representatives from the Bureau of Agri- Commissioner Sun, on his own initiative, culture and Forestry and two from the Bureau issued an order providing for the change of of Social Affairs of the hsien. Almost everybody contracts on the basis of those in existence prior is there but a working farmer; the representa- to 1946. The difficulty with the order is that tives of the assembly and farm association are many of the pre-1946 contracts and the original landlords. deposit receipts are not obtainable. There is no The composition of the hsien or municipal end of dispute as to what those contracts did or land commission is rather unfortunate because did not contain. More far-reaching is the order every land commission, regardless of its level, of the High Commissioner of Military and Po- could and should become a training center for litical Affairs of Southwest, issued on October the participation of the tenants in the affairs of 7. It states that the dollar of a deposit made the community, out of which a new farm leader- prior to 1938 is equivalent to the silver dollar ship might in time arise. The failure of the now in circulation. Deposits made from 1938 hsien commission to include tenants among its on should be converted to an equivalent of rice members is partly corrected by the hsien or tsen that a deposit could have bought at the time land commission. The village or land cominis- it was made. That volume of rice in turn should sions are supposed to consist of: the village be converted into silver dollars on the basis of head, who is the chairman of the commission; the current price. The end product should be one representative of the village assembly; one inscribed in the new contract as the deposit representative from the village farm association money. and/or a representative of the people known From the tenants' point of view this is a for his scholarship; two landlords; two owner sound decision, but it is much easier to state the cultivators; and four tenants. A total of eleven process of conversion and reconversion than to or twelve members as the case may be. In prac- carry it and with a considerable measure of tice we found that the number of representa- success. The landlords and the tenants are poles tives of a local commission is rather flexible; apart on the amount involved. Yet, on balance, some have six members, others nine, and still the measure will be of benefit to many tenants. others twelve as required by the regulation. It will never restore to them anything like the But whatever the number, the tenants are fairly volume of their former deposits; most likely, well represented. One of the commission we the measure will lead to numerous compro- watched in action was made up of twelve mem- inises out of which a tenant's new contract will bers including four tenants; in this particular show a larger deposit than otherwise. There is instance the commission was divided into three the possibility of another benefit. The deposit groups in order to expedite a large number of money issue, which comes into the open under disputes then pending. the impact of the rent reduction program, has A feature typical to all land commissions is placed the deposit practice itself in an un- that they are appointed bodies, the hsien rnagis- favorable light. It should be easier now to trate appointing the members of the hsien com- revise it out of existence if an attempt in that mission and the village head doing the same direction were made. And that would not be for the village commission. A great deal of a day too soon. power, which may not always be exercised for An important and sound aspect of the rent the welfare of the tenants in whose behalf the reduction scheme is the creation of land com- reform has been designed, is thus concentrated 126 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 in the hands of the village heads and magis- Fei, pleading for the eviction and tenant Chin-I trates. This matter was touched upon repeatedly Chang, arguing against it. in the talks with the officials, and the suggestion Landlord and tenant were quite remarkable was made for the introduction of an elective in the presentation of their respective argu- system whereby each group of the farm popu- ments. The landlord was very much the "beaten" lation-tenants, landlords, and owner culti- man, trapped as he was by the issuance of a vators-elect their own representatives to the new contract and the statement of Commis- land commissions. The suggestion received sioner Sun that no dispossession will be per- polite nods; in the eyes of the administration mitted (the three-year provision came into the the idea of a secret ballot in the hands of the picture a few days later). He was clearly in the farmer is even a greater break with the tradi- novel and uncomfortable position of not being tional way of doing things in rural China than able to dictate to the tenant in the manner of the rent reduction is or a land purchase pro- the very recent days; the tenant, on the other gram might be. It is understood, too, that, even hand, was "feeling his oats," as it were and if the provincial government were convinced probably for the first time. He seemed quite in the soundness of the proposal, it is much too certain of his rights, evidently entertained no late now in the midst of the program to make fear of retaliation on the part of the landlord, any changes. and with calm deliberation was telling the land- In the middle of October the local land com- lord that he was not going to move from the missions were barely a month old; a good land. Both parties were subjected to close ques- many were only a week old, while in some in- tioning by the members of the commission, and stances the village head was only making the after an all-morning session rendered a unani- appointments to the commissions. Yet, even at mous decision in favor of the tenant. Since the this early stage it is fair to say that they are decision is not binding, the commission spent a not paper organizations. The commissions al- good deal of time trying to convince the land- ready organized, which means the great ma- lord of the futility of taking the case to the jority, are actually engaged in the important court. While we were there the landlord did work of examining and attempting to settle not say "yes" and he did not say "no," but re- disputes that have arisen in consequence of rent gardless of the next step this particular land- reduction. The disputes cover the entire field of lord might take, the decision of a commission landlord-tenant relationships, but during Octo- cannot be disregarded without incurring at the ber deposit money and efforts of landlords to same time some censure of the farm community. evict tenants were the chief causes. Instead of This explains to a degree why in the majority of taking their troubles to the court, a time- cases the disputants accept the decisions as consuming and costly procedure, both landlords final and binding. and tenants are displaying a strong tendency to To observe a local land commission in ses- make good use of the commissions. The deci- sion is to become aware of one of the brightest sions of the latter are not binding, but in the features of the rent reduction program. For the majority of cases the parties to the dispute ac- first time in the history of rural Szechwan ten- cept them. One village land commission dealt ants are beginning to participate in affairs that with twenty-nine disputes, and the decisions in affect deeply the life and work of the largest twenty-two were acceptable to landlord and group in the community. In so doing, the tenant tenant. members of the commission not only protect In the course of the field trip in the third the interest of their group but receive a prac- prefecture, we had occasion to watch two local tical training in leadership, which prior to rent land commissions in action. We are quite cer- reduction was the sole preserve of the land- tain that the proceedings were not put on for lords and of local and district officials, largely our benefit; we just happened to stop at two drawn from the landlord class. village offices where the land commissions were The work of the village land commissions in session. The commission of Yang Chia Tza goes, therefore, far beyond the specific intent village was deliberating on a would-be eviction of the rent reduction regulations; even as con- case, in the presence of landlord Hsaio-Tung stituted at the present time, they bid well to Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 127 provide in time a farm leadership which is that more than 100,000 people are devoting lacking in Szechwan and without which the full to the program at least part of the working day. benefits of the most sound programs of eco- The field trip in the third prefecture offered a nomic, social, and technical improvements can- good opportunity to observe the work of some not be realized. of this personnel. The impression is a favorable one. Most of them are not zealots for the cause of the betterment of economic conditions of Conclusions the tenants. But among the highest strata of the administrative machine one finds conscientious Such are the principal observations on the workers like Commissioner Fong of the first progress of the rent reduction program in the and Commissioner Sun of the third prefectures, third prefecture. Much of the same can be said while Chen of the Peipeh special district is the of the first prefecture, where we visited in early shining example of a man who day in and day October. If they describe fairly accurately ten- out works with and for the farmers. The bu- ancy conditions and efforts to remedy them in reaucrats in between take their orders and act the other prefectures of Szechwan, then it is upon them if sufficient pressure is applied from reasonable to conclude that rent reduction, a the top. That they have had in good measure measure of security of tenure, and the begin- in recent weeks. The moral of it is that even nings of a change in landlord-tenant relations in Szechwan, China's most landlord-ridden and attitudes are taking place. The question province, not only a rent reduction program whether the rent reduction program has been but a reform that goes far deeper than that can carried out will have to wait for an answer be carried out if there is the will at the top to until the end of the year when all the evidence, do it. favorable or unfavorable, will be in. But what Another observation gleaned from personal is available now shows that a great deal has been contacts in the field in Chengtu (capital of accomplished and, barring the Communist oc- Szechwan) and in Chungking is the close co- cupation of Szechwan within the next few operation between Chinese officials concerned weeks, a successful completion of the program with the program and JCRR. It is expressed in may be anticipated. deed and on important issues. The measures It is rather surprising that so much has been taken to fill in the gaps in the rent reduction achieved in so short a time. The last regulation regulations are proof of that. Moreover, JCRR was made public only at the very end of Au- did not have to exert strong pressure to bring gust. The regulations themselves have been de- about changes deemed desirable. A suggestion vised in the greatest of haste (and carelessly) made around the table and a statement of the with hardly any time allotted for the assimilation reason prompting it were quite sufficient. A by the farmers of its principal points and with cynic might say that the Chinese officialdom very little time for its implementation. In sees the writing on the wall, and what it is short, what the Nationalist government failed doing in effect is fixing its fences in relation to to do in the twenty-three years since rent reduc- the Communists and the tenantry. This is prob- tion became a plank in its platform, the govern- ably so in many cases, but whatever the moti- ment is attempting to push through now in less vation a reporter on the current rent reduction than six months. It is in the nature of a minor activities in Szechwan cannot help but record miracle, therefore, that the program is being the spirit of cooperation between the provin- carried out. cial and prefectural administrations of Szech- The rent reduction program in Szechwan, as wan and JCRR. In a large measure the success- in Kwangsi and Taiwan, was devised by the ful application of the program to date can be government and is being implemented by the traced to the harmonious working of the two government with the aid of JCRR. In order to agencies. carry out the program, the provincial govern- In addition to expert advice bearing on the ment draws on a huge number of people for rent reduction program, JCRR has contributed assistance. A breakdown by administrative cate- $218,000 for the purpose of helping to carry gories, from the highest to the lowest, shows it out. The latter part of the statement may 128 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 sound like a stock phrase, but the fact that the light of day but for the financial aid of JCRR money is being spent for that purpose only is and the efficient manner in which that aid is illustrated by the following allocation of the being utilized. financial aid: The financial contribution of JCRR toward the realization of the rent reduction program in Percentage Szechwan (and in Taiwan) points to a pattern Silver dollars of total of aid that we do well to remember: A great Supervisor salaries and deal can be accomplished with relatively small travel expenses 99,732 30.8 means in the right place. Approximately Registrar salaries 67,120 20.8 350,000 tenant families in Taiwan (67 percent Subsidy staffs land com- of the total), 1,700,000 tenant families in the mission, hsien and five prefectures of Szechwan (roughly 60 per- hsiangs 65,750 20.4 cent of the total), and an unknown number of Printing contract forms 40,000 12.4 tenant families in the other eleven prefectures Printing publicity are recipients of the aid. A dime per family is material 21,061 6.5 what the aid amounts to. It has been a source Contingency fund 29,366 9.1 of constant wonderment to this observer that $30,000 in Taiwan and $218,000 in Szechwan could do so much for so many tenants in help- The supervisors, the registrars, some of the ing to fill their rice bowls and in widening their staff of the land commissions, certain techni- horizons. General Liu Wen-hui's defeat at the cians in the hsien and hsiang offices, printed hands of the tenants is a good example of that; contracts, and publicity material-these are the it is a break in the cake of the customary people and things on which the money is spent. landlord-tenant relations that transcends the More specifically, the financial aid of JCRR in significance of a reduction in rent. It is reason- five prefectures of Szechwan made it possible able to conclude, therefore, that a JCRR finan- to engage the services of a total of 2,249 idi- cial aid many times larger would have been viduals, or 2 percent of the total number of amply justified by the results already achieved. people concerned with the program. The 2,249 Another corollary of the rent program bears individuals are composed of 17 technicians of on United States foreign policy in and outside the provincial land committee, 554 supervisors of China. The program and the aid rendered by and 1,678 registrars-persons who are most in- ECA through JCRR are shaped with the view of strumental in the daily work of making the lasting benefit to the Chinese farmers. In doing application of the program possible. Having that, it has demonstrated in a practical way that seen them in action and the use to which the the Americans can be not merely against cer- printed contracts and publicity material are put tain ideas, which the Chinese farmer does not to, this observer is firmly of the opinion that begin to comprehend or has any interest in, but the rent reduction program could not have been also for ideas which are close to the heart and applied and surely not carried out without the are understood even by the most ignorant of services of the people and printed word pro- Chinese peasants. The rent reduction work, vided by the financial aid of JCRR. Hence the therefore, in its immediate and direct impact conclusion that, with all the goodwill on the part upon the farmers of Szechwan or Kwangsi, of the provincial government and with a perfect leaves a mark that may not be expunged. The set of rent reduction regulations, the chances seeds thus planted may not all be lost when the are that the program would have never seen the Nationalist government has disappeared from the mainland of China and the Communists have taken over. 1. The total number of prefectures in Szechwan An observer of the current efforts in rural is sixteen, but the aid extended to the eleven pre- Kwansi and Szechwan cannot help reflect on fectures is rather small. The five so-called "desig- nated" prefectures account for 44 percent of all the how much more could have been achieved by farm households of Szechwan and 40 percent of the the Nationalist government, particularly in the cultivated land. political field, if the reforms were promulgated Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Conditions and Rent Reduction Program 129 at a more propitious time. All it had to do was is grateful to his government for the aid that to recognize, earlier in the day, that in peasant will add so many more basketfuls of rice to his China (or peasant Philippines, India, Siam, meager larder, give him greater security of Middle East, and so forth) political power must tenure, and curtail the arbitrary actions of his rest upon peasant support and that the condi- landlord. Any number of cases observed on the tion of the support is filling in the empty rice trip can be cited to illustrate the point. The bowls or adding to the half-empty ones. The tenant in the village office in Kwangsi, half evidence gathered on the field trips is that the crazed with joy over the receipt of a deed that quickest and most expeditious way of allevi- gave him ownership of one acre of land that ating China's discontent grounded in riceless he worked as a tenant for thirty-two years, bowls is to change and improve the existing spoke without words for all others in similar land tenure arrangements. Hence the conviction positions. Nor is there any doubt about the that the failure to implement the Chinese agrar- state of mind and willingness of the tenants of ian legislation of the 1920s has not only tended Southwest China and Taiwan to support a gov- to keep a huge number of peasants on the ernment that has finally brought them hope of ragged edge of penury without any hope of re- a better day through rent reduction. It is quite lief but has, by the same token, widened the clear, therefore, that a wise government could breach between the Nationalist government and have made a great deal of political capital, and the peasants. This point is brought up not in perhaps achieve military and political stability, the spirit of what might have been; the lost if the farm aid made its appearance in good political opportunities in rural China and their time. After all, China's armies are peasant adverse effects upon the fortunes of the Na- armies. tionalist cause cannot be undone now. It seems What is true of China is essentially true of reasonable, however, to draw attention to the other parts of the Orient. Every densely popu- lesson of this experience, obvious though it may lated farm area of Asia counts land-hungry or seem, if the repetition of the same errors are to just-hungry tenants by the million. Most of be avoided elsewhere. them would sell their souls to their govern- One of the outstanding impressions of the ments for a piece of land in fee simple or for trip through southwest China and Taiwan reasonable tenure conditions. The only ques- is the enthusiastic response of the tenants to tion is whether those governments will heed the reform recently instituted. Their attitude the lesson of China's disastrous experience. It does not stem from any final solution of their behooves us to make sure that they do. If for problems, final in the sense that most of them no other reason than enlightened self-interest, were about to become owners of fair-sized in the contest with the Communists in Asia, holdings that would enable them to live happily the United States cannot be friendly to agrarian ever after; there is simply not enough land in feudalism simply because we are against Com- relation to the multitude of farmers to bring munist totalitarianism. Our attitude should be that condition about. But farm relief in China one of positive support of agrarian democracy. or in Asia in general is not a question of a We should lend our influence and prestige in whole loaf or none at all; as far as the farmers whatever form possible to the agrarian reforms are concerned, any efforts to ease their burdens already in being and those yet to come. We -even if it be of a limited nature-is wel- shall thereby help cut the political ground come. The tenant of the Chengtu Plain of from under the feet of the Communists and aid Szechwan who produces the rice crop but is the forces that make for a middle-of-the-road, compelled to buy most of the rice he consumes stable rural society. 130 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 13. Too Late to Save Asia? This short piece, written not long after Ladejinsky's return from Taiwan and Szechwan, is characteristic of his occasional attempts to inform and influence public opinion in constructive directions. It came at a time (shortly after the Berlin blockade, the creation of NATO, and the Communist takeover of China) when the cold war was at its chilliest and fears were widespread that the rest of Asia would shortly be lost to Communism. Amid the hysteria of that time, Ladejinsky's remained a cool voice, affirming that it was not too late-that democratic agrarian reform was the way to save Asia. This article appeared in the Saturday Review of Literature, July 22, 1950, and is reprinted by permission. THE CHINESE PEASANT SEEMED out of his Kipling was not one to neglect his poetic li- mind. He kept jumping up and down, making cense, but his picture is not actually overdrawn strange gestures with his fingers and palms, in hopelessness. For in 1950 the Asiatic peasant working them in a semicircular fashion around is no better off than he was in the late nineties his mouth. My interpreter chatted with him when Kipling wrote. The Communists are trans- briefly, then explained the situation to me. It lating Kipling into political language. They was the paper the peasant held in his hand that know that Asia's problem is the problem of land. caused his hysteria. That paper was the deed Four-fifths of the continent's vast population to the single acre of land which he had worked are peasants. Agriculture, not industry, is the as a tenant for the past thirty-two years. Now pivot of its economic life. Industry has made that precious acre of land belonged to him! but a small dent in the character of Asia not- This scene, which I witnessed not long ago withstanding oil gushers in Iran, tin mines in in the courtyard of the land office of the small Malaya and Siam, jute and cotton mills in village of Kwangsi, deep in the heart of China, India. The ambitious postwar schemes for in- epitomizes the problem and promise of all Asia. dustrialization throughout Asia as yet remain It sums up the present and perhaps the future mostly blueprints. The factory may bring ma- of a continent where agrarian discontent is terial advancement to the Asians someday, but gnawing at the vitals of the social order. It is that day is in the distant future. The heart of on this strife the Communists have been able to the problem of Asia today lies in the country- capitalize so successfully by posing as advo- side. It is on the farm where solutions must cates of reforms designed to benefit the peas- be sought and found. antry. In the Chengtu Plain of Szechwan, the rich- If the Chinese peasant of Kwangsi who est granary of China where I traveled last fall, seemed mad with joy is the symbol of the prom- the farmers who had just harvested excellent ise, the threat was stated by Kipling: crops seemed concerned with just one idea- how to secure enough rice for themselves and His speech is of mortgaged bedding, their families, how to fill the empty rice bowls On his kine he borrows yet, and add to the half-empty ones. The discontent At his heart is his daughter's wedding, I sensed in Szechwan is typical of the many In his eye foreknowledge of debt. regions I visited in recent years in other parts He eats and hath indigestion, of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Middle He toils and he may not stop; East. An overworked and overexploited peas- His life is a long-drawn question antry that for centuries was inertly miserable Between a crop and a crop. is now alertly miserable. Too Late to Save Asia? 131 The reasons for the age-old wretchedness of viet Union but land with which the peasants the Asiatic peasant can be summarized in a may do as they please. And the peasants, in brief sentence: too many people, too little land. sheer despair, believe the promises, if for no Pitifully small holdings, inadequate tools, and other reason than that thus far in Asia the institutional arrangements over which the peas- Communists have not yet had the opportunity ant has no control intensify his plight. A large to betray their promises as they did in Russia part of the misery and hunger arises from the when they eventually nationalized and took relationship between the peasants and the land- away the land from the peasants and herded owners, a relationship which the courts and them into collective farms at the point of a local officials have given official sanction bayonet. through the centuries. The peasants have been Every revolution invokes the name of Lib- obliged to pay exorbitant rentals, for they have erty, but the concept of liberty is always shaped no bargaining power. Nor is their contract of by the existing economic and social needs. For tenancy worth the paper it is written on; it the Russian peasants liberty meant the owner- may be altered or abrogated at any time at the ship of the lord's land. The Communist promise whim of the landlord. in 1917, which ultimately was broken, that the The peasants of Asia have never been satis- land would belong to them fell on the eager fied with this state of affairs. They have often ears of peasant soldiers who promptly left the raised horny hands against persons and govern- front lines, rifle in hand, and went home to ments which they believed were the causes of divide it. As Lenin put it, taunting his oppo- their distress. But in the main, until very re- nents, the peasants voted with their feet for cently the conservatism and inertia of the distribution of the soil. Thus, Lenin and his farmer and his ingrained, feudal subservience party succeeded in "cornering" what Karl Marx to the state and to his landlord kept the pot called "the peasant chorus without which the from boiling over. Now the forces that keep (proletarian) battle cry will degenerate into the peasant within well-defined bounds are just another swan song." The Communists breaking down under rising agrarian discon- would never have obtained power in Russia had tent. The peasantry is at last in motion. The they not successfully exploited the peasants Communists have exploited this fact and placed longing for the landlords' acres. it in the center of Asiatic politics. It is only Toward the end of his life Lenin despaired one side that has known how to exploit this of a Communist victory in Western Europe. He overwhelming question and to place it in the visualized the final crucial battle as a conflict center of Asiatic politics where it belongs. between a Communist East and a capitalistic The catastrophe of China is a case in point. West. In this struggle China and India were to Many are the reasons that explain the victory join Russia as the forces of Communism. To of the Communists and why in 1949 Nation- win Chinese and Indian support, Stalin devel- alist China could not boast of a single Leonidas oped a program for those countries consisting holding a single Thermopylae. But one cause of three stages: a struggle against foreign im- seems to me beyond dispute: Nationalist China perialism, an agrarian revolution under the was pressed and pushed over not so much by leadership of the Communist Party, and finally force of arms as by the Russian Communist a proletarian dictatorship. The key step was to tactic of giving land to the poverty-stricken, be the wooing of the peasants. landless, hopeless peasantry. It is in connection with this step that the Is there any wonder that peasants living on Chinese Communists have assumed a role which the ragged edge of penury are easy marks for has led many observers mistakenly to assume Communists who are masters in the art of ex- that they are "mere agrarian reformers." Actu- ploiting agrarian discontent for their own po- ally they played this role because, according to litical ends? The peasants know nothing and Communist theory, the road to political power care less about Marxism, Leninism, and Stalin- and dictatorship in China lay through the spon- ism, and they are surely not eager for collectivi- sorship of agrarian reform-"land for the land- zation. The Communists, however, promise less." To satisfy the innermost needs of the them not collectivization as it exists in the So- peasantry was only a means to a large end 132 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 which has little to do with the welfare of the Asian variety thereof offers a better solution peasants. of the agrarian problem than the new Commu- Stalin's three-page program of revolution, nist ideology. This is quite apart from the con- as exemplified by China, is now being exported sideration that the latest events in China and to Indo-China, to Burma, the Philippines, and the implied threat to the rest of Asia oblige us Indonesia, and even into little-known Hydera- to bolster our position there with something bad. The revolt last year in Hyderabad was a more lasting and effective than we have done peasant uprising, about the largest, and for a thus far. The positive and prompt decision to brief moment perhaps the most effective in place the peasant "in the center of the piece," Asia outside of China, and it was under Com- as Nehru once put it, is essential if non-Com- munist leadership. The uprising was finally munist regimes are to survive. crushed and the Communists jailed, yet it is According to Nehru, India and Asia as a worth noting that as in China the peasants of whole are confronted with no more urgent Hyderabad were not enticed by Communist tasks than agrarian readjustment. This presup- dogma but merely followed the welcomed Com- poses: (a) the improvement of agricultural munist bait of "land and liberty in Asia." techniques in order to raise farm production; There are fertile fields for the Communist (b) an approximation to an adequate standard strategy in other parts of India and Pakistan. of life through raising the output per man, I found plenty of evidence of this in a visit providing good credit and marketing facilities, to a typical Pakistan village during the spring fair taxation, health, and educational facilities of last year. All one hundred families who re- (c) proper utilization of land and water re- sided in the village were tenants of a single sources; and (d) a basic change in landlord- absentee landlord. Yields had been declining. tenant relationships, which in certain parts of I asked the assembled villagers for the reason. Asia is immediately the most important objec- "Our land," replied one of the tenants, "is like tive, both intrinsically and because of the threat a pitcherful of water from which we keep of Communism. Technological improvements pouring out while nothing is being poured in." alone will fall short of our goals. Increased pro- "Why don't you pour something in?" I asked. duction must be accompanied by a fairer dis- "How can we?" countered the tenant. "The tribution of farm income. Improvements in the landlord's share is so high that we would bene- use of land can come about most effectively if fit very little." The tenants had no incentive the tiller knows that the land or a reasonable to improve the land. The landlord received too share of the product of the land will belong to much and the tenant too little. him. Otherwise not all prerequisites will exist Many people wouldn't hesitate to approve for the technical progress envisioned, for in- of a revolutionary movement if it is the only stance, by the Point IV program, and our po- way the common man can secure his elementary litical aims will be made more difficult to attain. wants. But we must realize how serious a threat Douglas MacArthur in Japan, Nehru in an agrarian revolution could be at this point India, and, more recently, General Chen Cheng of history, even if the upheaval seems justifi- of Formosa have understood the urgency of able from that point of view. The only way to taking the wind out of the Communist sails in thwart Communist designs on Asia is to pre- a peasant ocean. MacArthur knew how to do it clude such revolutionary outbursts through and did it. A successful land reform under his timely reforms, peacefully, before the peasants direction has created in Japan a new, large take the law into their own hands and set the class of private owner cultivators and has countryside ablaze. But reforms, if they are to rendered rural Japan practically impervious to have a lasting effect, must come not only from Communism. Nehru is trying hard to do it. opposition to Communism but from an honest India's needs for technical farm improvements purpose and plan to raise the status of the are overwhelming, and Nehru is vell aware of peasantry. it. But he is just as conscious of the urgency Encouraging in the seemingly dismal situa- for a concurrent land reform program which tion in Asia is the fact that the American agrar- will give the Indian peasant an incentive to ian tradition of "forty acres and a mule" or an improvement and a sense of responsibility. Too Late to Save Asia? 133 Nehru's motivation is economic, social, as well bring the Asian people closer to the goals set as political: "If we don't do it, they will." And out by Secretary Acheson. "they" are the Communists. The need for U.S. material and technical as- Suggested farm reform can become a power- sistance in Far Eastern programs of agricultural ful political instrument. The native govern- improvement is accepted as an integral part of ments friendly to us would be more likely to our policy in Asia. The Point IV program is a win popular support, and popular support in good example of that. Another instance in the Asia is "peasant support or nothing." An owner same direction is the economic aid being ren- cultivator or a reasonably satisfied tenant would dered now to Southeast Asia by ECA. Less acquire a stake in society. He would guard that widely accepted and often even unrecognized society against extremism. Private property is the necessity to dissuade the recipients of our would be strengthened where it has been aid in Asia from allowing narrow institutional weakest-at the huge base of the social pyra- interests to stand in the way of a progressive mid. The common man of Asia would become rural policy, through which the maximum eco- a staunch opponent of Communist economics nomic and political benefits of our technical and politics-not necessarily to favor the in- and financial assistance could be realized. terests of the United States but simply because Whatever we may contribute to Asia's ad- his own interests lay in the same direction. vancement and stability-be it in the form of Secretary Acheson summed up the causes of dollars, of technical guidance, of organizational Asia's tensions in the San Francisco address on advice, or of military assistance-our policy U.S. policy toward Asia. "They (the Asian and all our diplomatic competence and tact people)," he said, "have been striving for inde- should be actively and sympathetically guided pendence, better education, more widespread by the knowledge that the foundations of the ownership of land, and control over their own social structure stand or fall in the countryside destiny." He continued, "It is no accident that and that the peasant and his interests and their goals and our goals are the same." But aspirations must be in "the center of the piece." while we are busy enriching the economic, We must make an effort to persuade the more political, and social institutions the American conservative Asian groups that rural reform is people have already achieved, Asia is yet to essential to their own preservation as well as create the beginnings from which a democratic in the interest of the peasantry. Provided such society may evolve. Such conditions cannot be basic attitudes are developed, here and in Asia, handed to Asia as a gift; they must grow out the United States could begin to supply the of Asia's wishes, opinions, and activities, mechanisms of reconstruction and effectively Nor is this easy. For Asia, unlike Western employ them. and perhaps also Central Europe, lacks almost Secretary Acheson is addressing himself to entirely the traditions, institutions, habits of the core of the problem when he urges that thought, and experiences which are essential to "We must increasingly in all we do and say democracy. That indeed is the principal political affirm the positive goals of a free people." If and psychological reason why Communism is a Mr. Acheson's words are to carry meaning for much greater threat in Asia than in Europe. the common man of Asia, we cannot remain The natural defenses against Communism that indifferent to the (oiinance of the traditional a tradition of individual dignity, the rights of beneficiaries of the prevailing feudal systems. From ambassadors and ministers to foreign man, and of democracy sets up in different de- service clerks, we must begin to feel and act grees in various countries are yet to be created in terms of the common man, and in Asia he is in Asia. We are still to demonstrate in that the peasant. We must make a special effort to part of the world that democracy is better and seek out and encourage in every way possible more profitable too. And it is through helping the native liberal groups who might otherwise to solve the problem closest to the heart of the be lost to our common cause. It is in the vast peasant that such a demonstration can be made. numbers of the cultivators of the soil and in That is how the rural program here outlined, the small yet important elements concerned if realized at least in its major parts, would with the welfare of the people where we would 134 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 be well advised to find and win our most potent way to what might be done on a larger scale allies. A strong, fairly contented peasantry and and in better time elsewhere. progressive native forces supporting them pro- JCRR is not an American but a joint Ameri- vide a more solid base for cooperation with can-Chinese commission, with a Chinese chair- the West and for the struggle against Commu- man and two Chinese and two American nism than the forces at work in many parts of members. We Americans furnish the money Asia to whom the very words "reform," but do not call the tune. With nationalism in 'change," and "concession" partake of the devil. Asia at white heat we must be careful not to They suffer from myopia, a disease likely to be do so. The commission works through local fatal. The landlords of Szechwan refused to organizations and finds local sponsors among support a mild reform program even though them for its projects. These projects are not the Communist armies had already penetrated based on preconceived theoretical notions but the gates. In the rest of Asia, too, landlords also on indications as to what the farmers them- may be their own gravediggers-and of their selves wish most. From such grass-root needs own governments. JCRR has evolved a practical national plan with In country after country one sees feudal this order of priority: (a) land reform, (b) classes bent on maintaining the status quo un- irrigation, (c) fertilizers, (d) farm organiza- sullied. They cannot gain popular support. They tions, (e) farm credit, (f) plant and animal neither benefit the rural community nor have disease, (g) seed multiplication, (h) animal they proved at all effective against Communist breeding, (i) rural health, and (j) audiovisual penetration. They are the unwitting and un- education. willing allies of Communism, for they are the The response of the Chinese and Formosan creators of the revolutionary situation. It is peasants to JCRR has been enthusiastic, although these and such forces that today hold great and the commission has actually spent little money decisive power in Asia. Without their consent -only five million dollars from its inception and support no progressive organization can to date. As I traveled from village to village to function. One of the basic tasks of the United see JCRR in action and talked with people in all States foreign representatives abroad should be walks of life, I was impressed by the prompt to convince these groups and their governments results of this grass-roots diplomacy. It made to follow the example of Tzar Alexander II, more friends for the American cause and did who saw in time that his only chance of keep- more actual good than many an elaborate diplo- ing the throne was to initiate reform. He matic act backed by the richest of treasure. warned the Russian landowners a hundred years Most significant was the reform of the tenure ago that "it was better to begin the abolition system. "Why," I asked Chiang Mon-lin, chair- of serfdom from above than to wait for it to man of JCRR, "are you engaging in this work begin itself from below." He abolished it from when the landlords are certain to oppose you?" above, and the Romanov dynasty retained the "To give meaning to the nine other branches of throne for another half a century until Alex- our work," Chiang Mon-lin replied. "We know ander's less wise grandson lost it. that using science to increase production is Fortunately, we already have a technical and relatively easy, but solving social problems is social agrarian program that has been developed difficult. If we had not developed a land reform and successfully tested by the Joint Commis- program along with our production program, sion on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR). This the better part of the good results would have organization, created in China as part of ECA gone to the landlords and not the tenants. That under authority provided in the China Aid Act would defeat our purpose." of 1948, held its first meeting in Nanking on JCRR did not create or impose agrarian re- October 1, 1948. The work of JCRR came too form upon China. Its Chinese chairman con- late to alter the course of events in China itself. vinced the Nationalist government that rent But what I saw of the JCRR's operation in China reduction and land purchase programs, which and in Formosa, where the operation is still had already been on the statute books for more going on, convinces me that it was one of than two decades and never applied, should be America's most fruitful ventures. It points the given a trial if only as enlightened self-interest. Too Late to Save Asia? 135 Within the short space of a few months, the The reform came too late to give the Na- land reform produced substantial and jinmedi- tionalist government even a measure of popu- ate results in terms of greater security of tenure lar support. But our last-minute efforts in and more rice for the tenants. It is question- Southwest China-and at present in Formosa- able if years of farm improvements would have nevertheless carry with them a most important given the tenants benefits anywhere near as lesson. ECA through JCRR has demonstrated in great as these. a practical way that the United States can act Remarkable also was the manner in which not merely against Communism, which has little tenants asserted their new-found rights. This meaning to the average Asian peasant, but also was impressed upon me as I watched the land for certain ideas understood by the most ig- commission of Yang Chia Tza village, in the norant of peasants. province of Szechwan, as it considered an evic- It is true that a final solution of problems of tion case in the presence of a landlord and the Asiatic peasant-final in the sense that most tenant. Calmly and with deliberation a tenant of them will live happily ever after--cannot contended that under the reform he could not be achieved. There is simply not enough land be evicted-something that would have been for the great multitude of farmers. But pro- unthinkable a few years ago. Or take the case of gressive rural reform in Asia is not a question General Lin Wen-hui, governor of Sikang, one of the whole loaf; any effort to ease the peas- of Asia's largest landlords, chief purveyor of ant's burden is welcome and lays a foundation opium throughout Southwest China, most re- for a middle-of-the-road, stable rural society. cently in the service of the Communists. Re- The tenant in the village office of Kwangsi, forms were not meant for him, he thought. He half-crazed with joy over the receipt of a deed sent one of his estate managers with a detach- that gave him ownership of but one acre of ment of troops to collect rents-the high, old land, spoke for Asia's millions. rents. The tenants did something they had "Land and liberty" has ever been the ideal never done before-they armed themselves. of all peasants. It is the American ideal. We When the manager and the troops appeared must lend all means at our disposal to bring it they announced they intended to defend their closer to realization. If the struggle against rights under the new rent reduction scheme Communism is to succeed, it must be inspired and would not permit collection at the old by an ideal, a broad and bright vision of the rate. Whereupon the manager hastily agreed future, that will find an instant response among to accept payments at the reduced rates. the disinherited of the largest of the continents. This was a unique experience for the gen- It was Goethe's Faust who said so wisely: eral and the tenants. It betrayed a crack in the . . cake of custom and the American people have To many millions let me furnish soil had much to do with it. In the province of Though not secure, yet free for active toil. Szechwan alone more than two million tenant * * * families were direct beneficiaries of JCRR. Yet JCRR disbursed but $218,000 on a reform that And such a throng I fain would see, went to the heart of China's rural and pofitical Stand on free soil among a people problem. free. 136 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 14. Rural Reconstruction under the China Aid Act Ladejinsky was impressed during his advisory service with the JCRR in Szechwan and Taiwan in the fall of 1949 with the way this agency, created by the Aid to China Act, was functioning. He advocates here that it serve as a model for other U.S. technical assistance programs. This model was, however, not the one subsequently adopted for implementation of President Truman's Point IV program, unfortunately, in my opinion. This article was published in Foreign Agriculture in August 1950. EVER SINCE PRESIDENT TRUMAN announced vided that up to 10 percent, or $27.5 million, his Point IV program on January 20, 1949, of the amount appropriated for economic assist- there has been a great deal of discussion in and ance to China could be devoted to the better- out of government circles on how best to give ment of agricultural conditions. This fund was technical aid to economically underdeveloped to be made up of U.S. currency, or Chinese countries. Much of this discussion has centered currency from sales of commodities made avail- on agriculture for most of the people in these able to China from funds under the act, or areas depend on farming for a living. The both. To carry out this work, a Joint Commis- effectiveness of Point IV aid will depend on sion for Rural Reconstruction was created, several things, including its scope in a given with authority to formulate and execute such country, the number of countries involved, and a program in China. the material means and technical personnel The JCRR was to be composed of two Ameri- available. Much, too, will depend on how well can and three Chinese citizens, the chairman of we apply the lessons and experience of U.S. the commission being a Chinese member. By agricultural aid in Latin America, China, and September 16, 1948, all members had been Formosa. selected. The caliber of the membership de- Technical assistance in Latin America has serves notice, for they were all people with been going on for a decade; the work in China intimate knowledge of China's rural conditions. and Formosa began less than two years ago, but On the Chinese side there were Chiang Mon- it is there that I saw first-hand a pattern of lin, former minister of education, one-time agricultural assistance that may be applicable to secretary general of the Chinese cabinet, and the Point IV program. This is the pattern a student of rural China; James Y. C. Yen, for worked out by the Joint Commission on Rural almost thirty years head of the mass education Reconstruction (JCRR), set up in 1948 under movement among Chinese farmers; and Shen the China Aid Act. Tsung-han, China's foremost plant-breeding ex- The purpose of this act (Public Law 472, pert. On the American side were Raymond T. 80th Cong.) was to improve and stabilize Moyer, for fifteen years before the war engaged China's economy. Four-fifths of the Chinese are in agricultural work in China and chief of the farmers, most of them barely making a living. Far East Division of the United States Depart- Therefore, no improvement in living conditions ment of Agriculture, during and immediately was possible, and hardly a measure of political after the war; and John Earl Baker, engineer, stability could be achieved without giving some former adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Rail- aid to the country's farm economy. ways, and for years a relief executive in China. The act recognized this, and section 407 pro- This was the group that formally assembled for Rural Reconstruction under the China Aid Act 137 the first time in Nanking on October 1, 1948, The program as adopted at the beginning elected Chiang Mon-lin chairman, and launched could not influence the situation significantly the formidable task of agricultural reconstruc- within the time which we foresaw would be tion in China. allowed for the commission's work. The The life of the commission in China was a integrated program centers developed too short one. As the Communist armies moved slowly, and assistance on a piecemeal basis through China in late 1948 and 1949, the corn- did not help enough people solve their most mission was compelled to shift its headquarters basic problems. . . . We decided that a great from Nanking to Canton and finally to For- deal still might be done by action in a more mosa in August. By the end of the first year of limited program, emphasizing felt needs of the commission's existence, all its work on the vital importance to the rural people, carried mainland had to be suspended and carried over out on a large scale. to Formosa, still outside the reach of the Com- munists. Notwithstanding the extremely diffi- Actually, the "limited program" meant handling cult circumstances under which the commission a limited number of the most important prob- worked on the mainland of China, it gained lems on a wider scale. For what followed was useful experience in the field of agricultural re- a bold rural program in the provinces of Szech- construction along the following broad lines: wan and Kwangsi on the mainland and later in Formosa. 1. Establishing basic principles underlying a Out of the shifts and changes, induced pri- sound reconstruction program in underdevel- marily by experience of working with the farm- oped areas; ers, the JCRR developed the following national 2. Establishing criteria for selecting projects; program, its constituent elements given here in 3. Organizing an agricultural reconstruction order of priority: (a) land reform, (b) irriga- program; tion, (c) fertilizer, (d) farmers' organization, 4. Achieving results quickly; and (e) rural industries, (f) plant and animal 5. Accomplishing much with little money. disease, (g) seed multiplication, (h) animal breeding, (i) rural health, and (j) audiovisual In working out the agricultural program in education. China, a number of problems had to be treated Placing land reform first among the items simultaneously. This is illustrated by the nature was no accident. The enthusiastic reception of of the commission's work. From its inception the commission's help in carrying out what is through November 1949, the commission as- known as the Lungyen land reform project and sisted a total of 216 projects: agricultural im- the exceptionally bad tenancy conditions in the provement, 91; irrigation, 51; rural health, 25; Kwantung province induced the commission to rural industries, 18; farmers' organizations, 16; pay close attention to the problem. It was land tenure reform, 8; and citizenship educa- equally clear to the commission that the chief tion, 7. , beneficiaries of the technical projects would be One of the principal tasks of the commission the landlords and not the majority of the farm- was to determine what parts of the overall goals ers-the tenants-unless tenancy conditions were realizable, especially considering the were improved. rapidly deteriorating military and political con- To help farmers get credit and market their ditions on China's mainland. Much thought, produce, the commission encouraged the organi- therefore, had to be given to implementing a zation of farm cooperatives through which rural program that would yield results quickly. At industries might develop and which generally the beginning the commission decided that an might serve as centers of agricultural rehabili- integrated program should be built on a selected ration. county basis. The idea behind it was that a The audiovisual education efforts stemmed successful program of this kind might, by force from the illiteracy of the farmers on the one of,example, spread to other counties and prov- hand and the need to provide a readily under- inces. However, according to Raymond T. stood medium to arouse the cooperation of Moyer: farmers on the other. To solve this problem, the 138 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 JCRR developed such media as graphic port- tween November 1948 and February 15, 1950, folios, posters, film strips, simply written short 1,178 applications were received from China's pamphlets, and comic books. provinces and from Formosa. Only 297 appli- Generally speaking, on the technical side of cations were approved. In Formosa alone by the program as a whole, the commission has May 31, 102 project applications out of a total been supplying specialists, both Chinese and of 429 were acted upon favorably. Clearly, the American, to formulate sound plans and estab- commission had to make choices, and it made lish means of carrying them out. On the finan- them by establishing a number of rather sig- cial side, the commission has been furnishing a nificant criteria, which might well serve as a certain amount of funds for specified purposes basis for a similar approach in agricultural essential to the success of the program, supple- assistance work in other areas. menting them with funds supplied from pro- The commission proceeded on the assump- vincial or local sources. tion that in China (as in any other country) when one engages in farm aid, one must win the goodwill of the farmers. To do that, those Basic Principles projects that the farmers want most must be promoted. No project can succeed without the Perhaps one of the most important features of active participation of the people; it must have the JCRR, in itself and in relation to any Point the support of a local group. Past experience IV program, are some of the principal ideas has shown that money expenditure alone does that have stamped its character. For example, not create lasting reconstruction; what is im- the commission ruled out costly projects with portant is that the aid should help the people modern equipment-good for American agri- to help themselves by utilizing their own re- culture but definitely too "high hat" for Chinese sources to a maximum degree. Not only must agriculture. The commission also decided not the people take active part to insure the suc- to set up new enterprises that would compete cess of a project, but the cooperation of the with those already established. If, for example, government is equally vital. Without its sup- a local serum-manufacturing business was port and without its general concern for the found to be inadequate, the commission was welfare of the people, the development of a ready to assist,in enlarging and improving it project is practically impossible. but was not willing to start a completely new, In addition, the educated youth of the coun- competing enterprise. try must be drawn into the work of agricultural The commission was careful, too, not to ap- reconstruction. In China as elsewhere, they proach its work with a preconceived notion as represent the country's hope of the future, and to what is good for farmers. Such ideas, it was to secure their support for agricultural recon- felt, must come from the farmers themselves struction means training a new leadership so as a result of close contact with them. As vital to the lasting success of a country's agri- Chiang Mon-lin put it: "Regardless of how cultural economy. Too, the commission has felt good are our intentions and how sound a pro- that a project must benefit the greatest number gram, if the rural people do not want the pro- of farmers. And finally, the commission's cri- gram it cannot be imposed upon them." terion for giving aid and assistance to a project In addition the commission avoided long- has been based on the idea that physical recon- range projects but did not hesitate to spend a struction must be accompanied with social considerable amount of money on irrigation justice, which, in effect, means fair distribution when it was certain of higher yields in the im- of farm income among all the parties connected mediate future. with the land. This idea is closely associated with improving productive technique and with the business side of farming as well as with Selecting Projects the attitude of the farmers toward agricultural reconstruction. As the commission got under way, it received The JCRR, for example, favored irrigation as hundreds of applications for assistance. Be- a means of increasing agricultural productivity, Rural Reconstruction under the China Aid Act 139 but it found it necessary to raise this question: cine, an experienced veterinarian, and obligated "Whose land?" The commission was afraid itself to pay half the indemnity (Formosa's De- that failure to ask this question and act upon partnent of Agriculture paid the second half) it might bring about a situation where, in its for the slaughtered cattle. This, together with words "the rich became richer and the poor an intensive educational program aroused the poorer." Hence the criterion that while one farmers to the danger of the epidemic and se- must begin with physical improvements, social cured their active cooperation. As of February reconstruction must not be neglected if the 1, 89 percent of the 67,000 cattle were vac- true goals of rural reconstruction are to be cinated, and by the middle of February the op- achieved. eration was virtually completed. The monetary contribution of JCRR to this program was only $6,192, but the other and real contribution, Organizing the Program hard to evaluate in terms of dollars, was the drive the commission generated to insure the These ideas and criteria were being translated success of the fight against rinderpest. The into action first on the mainland of China, and actual work was carried on by the local depart- currently in Formosa, through the actual opera- ment of agriculture and other provincial agen- tion of the national program. For this purpose cies in close cooperation with farmers. the program of the commission has been di- The program of JCRR as indicated is made vided into five main divisions: agricultural, land up of a great variety of projects. At present tenure, irrigation, rural health, and audiovisual they are confined to Formosa; as of May 31, education. The division heads are either Chinese 1950, the commission was assisting 102 proj- or Americans with a great deal of experience ects. To cite but a few: in their respective fields; their staffs screen the projects, make recommendations to the coin- 1. Rehabilitation of rural domestic water sup- mission, and supervise field operations. When ply plants, sponsored by Provincial Depart- the commission operated on the mainland of ment of Reconstruction; commission sub- China, it had regional offices headed by a repre- sidy, $189,000. sentative of the commission. The representa- 2. Multiplication and extension of rice seeds, tive served as a liaison between the commission sponsored by Formosa Provincial Depart- and local agencies, and he was responsible for inent of Agriculture and Forestry; subsidy, supervising the projects. S30,000. Much of the technical work within the coin- 3. Production of hog cholera crystal violet vac- mission is done by Chinese. It has been the cine, sponsored by Formosa Provincial Veter- commission's policy to hire American tech- inary Serum Institute; subsidy, $20,000. nicians only when absolutely necessary. Their 4. Supervision of distribution of ECA fertilizer, role is one of guiding and training, and in the sponsored by Bureau of Food, Formosa pro- experience of the commission such efforts can vincial government; subsidy, $15,000. be accomplished with few Americans. In For- 5. Health survey, sponsored by Public Works mosa the commission employs 200 people; of Administration and Provincial Health Ad- these only 17 (including the two commission- ministration and National Institute of ers) are Americans. The commission can func- Health; subsidy, $1,000. tion with this relatively small staff because it has succeeded in inducing the agencies spon- How is a project initiated, contracted and soring the projects to do most of the work. paid for, and inspected? And how are the re- The role of JCRR in controlling the rinder- sults evaluated? A project is generally initiated pest outbreak in Formosa in the fall of 1949 by a sponsoring agency, governmental or pri- is a good example of that. On learning of the vate. The appropriate division of the com- outbreak of the disease, the commission secured mission reviews the project from the standpoint the complete cooperation of the Formosa De- of technical feasibility, reality of cost estimates, partment of Agriculture in the campaign to conformance with JCRR policies, and then eradicate it. The commission provided the vac- makes its recommendation to the commission. 140 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Schedules of payments are included in the rec- cessful the land reform program was, totally ommendation if the project is to be approved. out of proportion to the financial assistance Upon approval, the commission enters into a given by the commission: In the former, for written agreement with the cooperating agency example, JCRR was able to assist the rent reduc- in which responsibilities of both parties are tion program from which 1,700,000 tenant clearly stated. In every instance the commission families benefited at a cost of only $218,000, or retains the overall supervision of the work of not much more than a dime per family. the project. In Kwantung, Kwangsi, and Szechwan, more The agreement provides for a careful audit than 200,000 acres were irrigated or existing of money spent by the sponsoring agency. All facilities improved in less than a year. The in- payments, other than the initial payment, on the crease in rice production was estimated at part of the commission depend on the progress 164,000 tons. In the province of Hunan, where of the work. The sponsoring agency submits a the commission allocated $1 million for irriga- monthly progress report and the commission, tion, matched by a similar contribution by the in turn, investigates developments. local people, it was estimated that the first post- irrigation crop would increase the value of the output by $12 million. Results The multiplication seed project in Formosa, already carried out, involved the commission in What of the results achieved by the commis- a cost of $30,000. The results of the work on sion? Because of the brief period of the com- the foundation and stock seed farms cannot as mission's activity on the mainland of China, it yet be determined, but, from the seed on the is difficult to determine the accomplishment of extension farms and that distributed among the projects initiated in areas now under Coin- farmers, even a 5 percent increase in yield will munist domination. The results of such projects raise production by 13,000 tons, valued at more as the organization or reorganization of farm than $1 million. cooperative associations or the projects centered In addition to its accomplishments, both in around the mass education movement in Szech- China and Formosa, in the field of increasing wan could be fully determined only in time and agricultural production and of distributing farm under normal political conditions-conditions income more equitably, the commission made not obtainable. Despite these handicaps, I be- considerable headway in improving rural health, lieve that where the projects were initiated, the eradicating animal disease, organizing farm co- commission usually planted seeds that may not operatives, and aiding rural handicrafts with necessarily be lost even where Communists hold which peasants have supplemented their income sway. Farmers were not slow in appreciating from the land. the value of the efforts in their behalf. The en- Some of the real achievements of the com- thusiasm of farmers for the practicality with mission fall into the category of the so-called which the Commission went about developing intangibles, which cannot be easily measured a project was quite apparent as was the en- by any merit point system. Every country of thusiasm of many Chinese agricultural officers Asia has a reservoir of native talent, but often participating in this work. It would not be sur- it does not know how to go about improving prising, therefore, to discover at some later date the welfare of the people. The JCRR tapped a the survival and continuation of some of the measure of that talent in China. The few but work and ideas introduced into rural China by well-chosen Americans on the commission's the commission. staff performed that function in addition to In the field of land reform, which in some their described duties as they appear on an areas was instigated by the commission while organizational chart. It is fair to say that one in others by the Nationalist government, 15 of the commission's important projects, albeit million farm people are bound to raise their never listed, is the talent multiplication project. standard of living above a bare subsistence It is difficult, too, to evaluate in concrete level through the 25 percent reduction in rent. terms what seems to me one of the commis- In Szechwan and in Formosa I saw how suc- sion's greatest achievements-the philosophy, Rural Reconstruction under the China Aid Act 141 as it were, shaping the work of the commission. there is reason to believe that between 90 and Frequently, Westerners operating in non- 95 percent of the money was properly spent. Western surroundings have been all too prone My own field observations on the jciuz's ex- to carry over notions foreign to the new en- penditure of money on the rent reduction pro- vironment, thereby reducing the effectiveness grams led me to the conclusion that, when of the effort. The JCRR has been free from money is judiciously spent, a great deal can be making such mistakes. On the contrary, it has accomplished with relatively small means. formulated a set of workable principles in the The care with which the commission was light of China's and Formosa's rural needs, spending other people's money was also due which in turn have given meaningful direction to the fact that the commission drew a sharp to its work. Such nonmaterial developments line of demarcation between a program of ex- cannot be easily measured and it is difficult to penditure for capital equipment and the com- assign specific values to them. But that they are mission's program of technical, economic, and of great significance, nevertheless, was quite social rural reconstruction designed to help the obvious to me as I watched the commission at farmers to help themselves. Moreover, the com- work and studied its decisions at close range. mission realized that "the number of tested im- provements which can be introduced on a large scale in China's rural areas still is limited." Cost of the Program Where it found them, as for example in irriga- tion, in control of animal disease, in multiplica- How much did the program cost and how well tion and distribution of improved varieties of did the commission spend the money? It was important field crops, or in rent reduction, the originally agreed that the commission would commission did not hesitate to give maximum finance its operation from three sources: U.S. aid. At the same time, the experience of the funds and funds furnished by the Chinese gov- commission shows that, unless it can be usefully ernment and by Chinese farmers. The contribu- absorbed, money alone cannot solve problems. tion of the latter was to have consisted mainly And this is a point worth remembering in all of payments in kind and labor and repayment rural aid efforts in underdeveloped countries. of the JCRR loans contracted by them for a Such in the main are the aims, organization, given project. But from the outset, and particu- work, and results of the work of the JCRR. It larly in view of the worsening military situation came too late to alter the course of events in and financial chaos, it became difficult to secure China, but I believe that this is one of America's the agreed upon share from a sponsoring most fruitful ventures, for what it attempted, agency. The commission was compelled to draw actually did, is still trying to do in Formosa, more and more upon U.S. resources. Yet, de- and, above all, for what might be done, on a spite this and notwithstanding the considerable larger scale and in better time elsewhere. tangible and intangible results of the work of The Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruc- the commission, it spent only $4,755,500 from tion is truly a joint, cooperative organization, October 1, 1948, to May 15, 1950. where Americans and Chinese work together in Whether considered alone or compared with a common task. This device points the way to a other China aid programs, the sum is small in- similar pattern, whenever possible, in other deed. The commission has been most conserva- parts of the world. Such a pattern goes a long tive in allocating money for projects and, once way toward obviating the accusation that we allocated, careful in insuring that the money harbor ulterior motives in offering assistance, be spent as intended. The chairman of the com- and, above all, it insures an effective working mission, Dr. Chiang Mon-lin, has repeatedly relationship. stated in public that the U.S. taxpayer furnishes The commission has demonstrated that in the bulk of the money and that it must be used rural reconstruction a little money well used only for sound projects yielding significant re- can go a long way, providing, of course, that sults. The largest amount of money was spent the cooperation of the government is enlisted on irrigation projects scattered in various parts to a point that it is willing to take the required of China, often difficult to control closely. Yet action to put the necessary measures into effect. 142 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 The commission has pioneered the idea that in future acquire a stake in the countries in which order to meet the fundamental causes of rural they live. Therein lies the foundation for a discontent, a rural program must be fashioned middle-of-the-road, stable rural society. The po- in the light of the economic, political, and so- litical corollary of this type of rehabilitation cial conditions existing in a country. For this cannot be overestimated, for it is fair to assume reason, the JCRR program does not limit itself that peasants will be more prone to support a to technical problems pertaining to raising government that is contributing its share to agricultural production. The commission has making the economic and social benefits. And broadened the concept of technical agricultural what many a native government in Asia needs aid by recognizing the importance of raising most is popular support, and popular support the questions: Whose land is being improved, in Asia is peasant support. My first-hand ob- how will increased income be shared between servations of JCRR lead me to the conclusion, landlord and tenant, and how do tenants fare therefore, that its program as a whole deserves in existing conditions? serious consideration as a means of meeting the This novel concept of combining technical problems of poverty-stricken rural areas every- aid with that of remedying social inequities where, particularly wherever the countryside is strikes at the fundamental causes of peasant an easy prey to Communist propaganda and in- discontent. The peasants with an improved filtration and wherever Communists are trying economic status and a brighter hope of the to harvest crops they have not planted. 15. Observations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan Not long after Ladejinsky's return to Tokyo as agricultural attach6 in October 1950, his advice was again sought by Premier Chen Cheng of Taiwan, and he revisited Taiwan in the spring of 1951. This paper, the most substantial of his China-Taiwan papers, reported on his observations. These embraced farm prices, agricultural taxation, farm credit and fertilizer distribution, as well as rent reduction and the government's land purchase program. This revisit to Taiwan, some eighteen months after the institution of the rent reduction program he observed during his 1949 visit, must have impressed on Ladejinsky that basic land redistribution or rent reduction and security of tenure measures cannot by themselves ensure the well-being of their beneficiaries and that complementary measures (on fertilizer and other inputs, taxes, prices, and so on) were essential to round out a successful agrarian reform program. One immediate result of his recommendations was a government order to the Taiwan Sugar Corporation to sell to the government, for its subsequent redistribution, two-thirds of the acreage it operated under lease to tenant farmers. Because of the paper's length, only the opening paragraphs and the summary and conclusions are presented here. This report to the National government of China and the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction was dated June 1951. THE WEEK OF APRIL 27-MAY 7, I spent on a Taiwan. The original purpose of the trip was field trip in the company of Tang Hui-Sun, twofold: (a) to examine the status and conse- chief, Land Division, JCRR, and N. M. Lin, in- quences of the land rent reduction program, terpreter and assistant, and member of ECA, initiated in early 1949, and (b) to inquire into Observations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan 143 the attitude of the tenants and landlords toward Taiwanese farmer, in 1951 I was struck by the a land purchase program, currently contem- eagerness to "tell all" and to insure that the plated by the government. However, in the visitor understood and would present their case. course of the trip virtually every other impor- Opinions of disgruntled farmers are no substi- tant farm problem came up for consideration. tute for a careful study of village conditions, but I carried away the impression that notwith- standing an obvious degree of exaggeration, the Method of Investigation statements of the farmers reflected what ails the rural areas of Taiwan at the present time. Our party traveled through the densely popu- lated agricultural region of the western coast of Taiwan, starting from Taipeh in the north The Basic Problem to the southernmost part of the island beyond Pingtung. We visited a total of ten counties; What is it, then, that disturbs the farmers re- these included the principal rice, sugar, and gardless of strata? Why the note of urgency in sweet potato-producing areas, some two- and the recitals of their problems? The answer ap- one-crop areas-both well-irrigated and poorly pears to be that from the latter part of 1950 on irrigated land sections of the island where a the farmers of Taiwan have been having diffi- landlord stands for vast acres as well as sections culty making both ends meet. The farm com- where a landlord is one chiefly by courtesy, as munity, so the farmers insisted, is worse off it were. We held a total of ten meetings with now than in 1949, despite the extremely valu- farm groups composed of tenants, owner culti- able aid given them by the Joint Commission vators, and landlords, with the attendance rang- on Rural Reconstruction and ECA. ing from 40 to as many as 300. We made numerous stops along the road to talk to indi- vidual farmers, visited farm homes, and looked Summary into many a pigsty of contented hogs and into a few bins to see how the rice was holding out The purpose of the trip was to study land re- one or two months before the new crop is har- form problems, but after one day in the field vested. County, township, and village officials and two farm meetings, it was clear that the were not neglected; we could not escape them. farmers were deeply concerned with low farm prices coupled with continuously rising prices of nonfarm products. Nature of Report The undeniable existence of the "scissors" problem is affecting adversely-even if in dif- The report doesn't claim to be more than it is: ferent degrees-every class of farmers. Theirs firsthand impressions of farm conditions and is a daily and painful experience when they farmers' views buttressed, wherever possible, buy or wish to buy a catty of salted fish, a catty with what seemed fairly sound facts and figures. of soya sauce, matches and tobacco, a few yards The linguistic difficulties may have resulted in of piece goods, a pair of shoes, a plow, a har- some erroneous impressions and occasionally row, some building materials, and a host of misplaced emphasis, and I am not unmindful other necessities a farmer needs to live. This of the propensity of the farmers to complain of unbalance of prices is at the bottom of the cur- bad times. On the other hand, I covered roughly rent farm depression. From the farmers' point the same ground in 1949 and was in a better of view, the unreasonableness of the situation position to compare farm conditions now and is accentuated by the knowledge that the world then. There was, for example, no mistaking the market price of rice is much above the price mood of the farmers as they gave vent to their they receive. Rightly or wrongly, the farmers pent-up emotions on the subjects of farm are of the opinion that the unfavorable price prices, cost of production, taxation, land prices, relationship is not an act of God but is a de- the Sugar Corporation, and so on. If in 1949 I liberate policy of the government to serve non- noted a certain reticence on the part of the farm ends which they do not comprehend. 144 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 The farmers were not only complaining; tion of information on agricultural improve- they were ready with remedial suggestions. ments, and of the better practices introduced in What they want most is real parity. They did other fields of farm activity. They point out, not demand a boost in the rice price for fear of however, that this assistance is countered by inviting an even greater rise in other prices. In economic and fiscal policies, which, whether by meeting after meeting they laid much emphasis design or not, siphon off the gains. If this con- on a balanced relationship between farm and dition continues, the pattern of U.S. aid to the nonfarm prices. The other remedy suggested by rural areas of Taiwan may not achieve all of the farmers is the exportation of rice and in a its purposes, nor can the present standard of manner whereby they, too, would benefit from living raised by JCRR and ECA be maintained. the high world prices. We cannot expect to harvest the kind of po- To the unbalance of prices must be added a litical capital among the recipients of our aid number of other factors which add to the bur- as might have been the case under more normal den already shouldered by the farmers. They conditions. stem from all manner of governmental eco- The consequences of the rent reduction pro- nomic and political considerations. The prin- gram extend far beyond the immediate benefit cipal grievances were: (a) some dissatisfaction of so many more catties of rice to the tenant. with a particular aspect of fertilizer distribu- The program is responsible to a large extent tion, (b) increasingly heavy taxation, (c) ab- (taxation and low prices are the other factors) sence of adequate credit facilities and depend- for the drastic reduction in the market value of ence upon loans at usurious rates of at least land worked by tenants as distinct from land 10 to 15 percent per month, (d) sale of green farmed by owner cultivators. Most landlords are crops (standing crops) forced by lack of capital eager to sell their land, but people with means at far below the market price, (e) burdensome wouldn't invest in lands. The only would-be conditions under which the sugar cane farmers buyers, the tenants, lack the means; very few operate, and (f) low returns to farmers from among them will be acquiring land in the fore- nonagricultural activities. seeable future through their own efforts. On the positive side and from the point of The land distribution program for Taiwan view of the tenant, the rent reduction program has been under discussion for almost a year. has been successfully carried out and rather The results to date are promising in one re- significant consequences came in its wake. One spect and rather meager in another. The can point to evasions and continued complaints government decision of May 30, 1951, and about the unfairness of the land-grading system, subsequent steps to engage in a large-scale but basically the program has been translated sale of public land to the tenants is an impor- into action. Tenants readily admit that they s i. benefitted from the rent reduction program. In tane i n the con.pti ld the present depressed state of Taiwan's farm hae gdfe on te c eld land economy, a large number of tenants would be in purchase program of privately held land. The dire economic straits but for the reduction of planning to date with respect to privately held rent. Precisely because rice is so cheap and other land is only tentative. Much spade work must commodities are so expensive, the extra thou- be done before an effective program can be sand or two carries of rice the tenants may re- drawn up. The prospects of selling the greater tain assume added importance. part of the public land are good, as it now Under the impact of the worsening farm seems likely that government corporations con- conditions, however, tenants are inclined to trolling it will be induced to give the land minimize the benefits from the reduction in back for eventual sale to the tenants. Premier rent. This attitude also manifests itself in rela- Chen Cheng's sincere and active concern about tion to many other benefits derived from JCRR land reform augurs well for an effective land and ECA aid programs. The farmers are well transfer program for the benefit of the tenants aware of the positive results of irrigation, seed of Taiwan. multiplication, pest control, animal husbandry, rural health, fertilizer distribution, dissemina- * * * Observations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan 145 Conclusions crease agricultural production in its broadest sense are accompanied with measures to insure General better distribution of income among those who actually till the soil. And yet, it is apparent that The poor exchange value of farm products in to the extent that government price, market- relation to nonagricultural products casts a ing, credit, taxation, and other economic and shadow on the rural economy of Taiwan. The fiscal policies are out of joint with basic needs purchasing power of the farmers is at a very of the farm community, the positive results of low point. The consequences are quite obvious. our aid may not contribute to any real improve- The agricultural recovery of the island, in full ment in living standards. swing in 1949 and early 1950 under the well- This leads to a general observation applicable conceived and effective ECA and JCRR aid pro- to Taiwan-and beyond. In dispensing aid we grams and the Chinese government's own ef- must realize that economic policies of a govern- forts, is suffering a setback. In 1951 the tenants ment in their many ramifications have a direct are inclined to minimize the significance of the bearing on whether the rice bowl is full or rent reduction program; they tend to overlook empty. The ECA China mission and jCR are the fact that they would be much worse off now well aware of this and are acting now to help without the extra rice gains. Farmers as a group the government evolve economic and fiscal ar- appreciate U.S. economic aid which penetrated rangements essential both to effective economic practically every field of farm endeavor. But the aid and to a farm program that safeguards for results of that aid cannot counteract the effects the farmers the fruit of their labor. of a sharp decline in the real value of rice, not Premier Chen Cheng has an abiding interest to mention the effects of onerous credit and in land reform measures as a means of raising taxation conditions. If the current farm depres- the status of the farmers, and he and Governor sion is not alleviated, the American economic K. C. Wu are concerned with other farm prob- efforts on behalf of the farmers cannot achieve lems as well. They welcome criticism, sound the levels of economic and social betterment advice, and act upon it. This appears not to be originally anticipated. true, however, of the majority of government It is easy enough to present the evidence of officials who take the farmer for granted. They depressed farm conditions, but it is not easy to believe that regardless of his economic condi- make valid and enforceable recommendations tion, he will continue to provide food for the to remedy the situation. This is particularly true people, the army, and the exportable surplus in the case of Taiwan, which in recent years to raise foreign exchange funds and will con- has had to support more of a burden than its tribute the lion's share of government revenue. mainly agrarian economy could normally man- It is held that he should do so uncomplain- age. In a large measure the unbalance of ingly, since most everyone on the island is poor. prices, heavy taxation, and lack of credit are This hangover from traditionalism is bound the consequences of requirements that could to give rise to serious economic and political not be fully met from domestic and foreign repercussions. Even if for purely selfish reasons, (aid) sources. For this reason, most of the the ranks of the government must come to ap- problems cannot be solved in the immediate preciate the fact that in 1950 more than 90 future. The general and specific conclusions percent of Taiwan's exports were of agricultural stated below aim only to ease the farmers' lot. origin. If this is to be maintained, healthy agri- The one outstanding lesson that emerges cultural conditions are indispensable to the from the present agricultural situation is that welfare of Taiwan as a whole. Without an ap- if a farm aid program is to achieve its aims, preciation of this basic fact, it is impossible to government policies must be in tune with it. lay down general agricultural policies which Both in philosophy and action, JCRR is the really meet the needs of the farmers and to best example of a well-integrated American sys- carry out specific measures to make those poli- tem of aiding another people. Measures to in- cies meaningful. 146 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Specific 2. Limit the corporation processing charge of 50 percent of the delivered cane to 45 per- With regard to farm prices, the financial posi- cent. tion of the government does not permit a bal- 3. Compensate farmers for the by-products of ance or real parity between farm and nonfarm cane refining to the extent of 50 percent of products at the present time. However, farmers their value. could benefit from the following measures: 4. Increase credit to the farmers on a basis simi- lar to expenditures made for maintenance of 1. The first crop is expected to be larger than the plants and the corporation's own cane that of 1950, and 1951 rice exports could plantations, since farmers produce more than be increased to 150,000 or 200,000 metric four-fifths of the cane used by the corpo- tons. Farmers would consume more of the ration. super-abundant sweet potato crop and less rice if a good share of the export proceeds With regard to farm taxation, it is recog- were returned to them in terms of imported nized that the government now is in urgent consumer goods at prices commensurate with need of all possible revenue. However, in de- the rice prices paid the farmers by the gov- termining the taxation to be paid by the farm- ernment. ers, the following points should receive the most 2. A firm understanding on that score between careful consideration: the government and the farmers now that the 1. The farm tax burden should be eased if for first crop is being harvested would have a no other reason than that continued exploita- salutary effect on the second rice crop tion of farmers will eventually decrease agri- planted later in the summer. cultural production and revenue. 3. Purchase of surplus rice by the government 2. The "take" from the farmers should be de- immediately after the harvest when prices termined in the light of the government's are lowest, based on cost of production and 75 percent parity of general price level, 3. The government should carry out its long- would help to stabilize rice prices. It also 3.oThe oreth arry o ts ong- woud povie te gvermen wtad- projected thorough examination of the over- would provide the government with ade- . quate rice for domestic purposes and in- all tax structure of the island. crease the amount available for export pur- 4. Taxes levied on industry and commerce creae te amuntavalabl fo exprt ur- should be tightened up and the loop-holes poses, and the supply and price of rice could pluggd. Accordng to al sue hey be adjusted by resale of rice in case of short- plugged. According to official sources, they age. This operation could be financed from do not pay their share. the revolving fund of the Food Bureau and 5. The land surtax and the compulsory sale of a g. rice tax should be reduced but not elimi- provincial government appropriations.naealothr 4. Credit should be extended to the rice pro- 6. C lsor ducers before the harvest with the loan re- payable in rice at a fair price after the har- coupon savings should be waltered to a vest. Farmers would obtain some badly point more nearly in accord with the finan- needed cash, and the glut of cheap post- 7 cial position of the farmers. harvest rice would be reduced. This is a type In general, a careful sifting of the twenty or . more tax, fee, and contribution items farmers of short-term loan that can be relatively easily provided and advantageous to both now pay might suggest the elimination of parties. some and a reduction in others. With regard to farm credits, it is generally With respect to the cane grower, the Sugar agreed that credit, both short- and long-term, Corporation and the government might profit- at low interest rates, is urgently needed; but ably give consideration to the following: everyone is at a loss as to how to secure the requisite funds. Private sources cannot be 1. Reduce the sugar tax of 37.5 percent to the counted on; the moneylenders' credit is im- original 25 percent. poverishing the farmers. It follows that: Observations on Rural Conditions in Taiwan 147 1. The government might consider furnishing With regard to the public land purchase an additional NT$100 to 200 million to program, the government should: create a credit system that would serve the 1. Launch the next phase of the land reform needs of a greater proportion of the farm poplaio . i rpslne o esm program with the sale to tenants of the population. This proposal need not be sum- goen ntwedpbila. marily dismissed on the grounds that the 2. Enlarge the present scope of the public land government has no money. The rising finan- sEle hees cial burdens to which the lack of credit is sae see. basic jeopardize the maintenance of even the tak poseion o th ic lan ext . that portion without which the operations present levels of agricultural production. of the government corporations would be 2. The JCRR should give thought of setting up seriously endangered. a credit revolving fund equivalent to U.S.$1 million to $2 million in local currency. This Dpoit al wther nue fro al of the fundmaybe s god n inestentas,for public land, whether in the national or pro- vincial categories, in a fund from which the example, an equal amount of money ex- landlords would be paid for their land. tended to finance irrigation projects. 3. A percentage of the foreign exchange re- With respect to the sale of privately held ceived from export of agricultural products land, it is recommended that: might be allocated to the credit fund. 1. The acreage available for purchase by ten- With regard to fertilizer distribution, the ants should be determined on the basis of 1951 ECA agreement with the government the JCRR studies of landlord categories. (fertilizer for the second rice crop) provides 2. The terms for compensation should provide the formula that will serve the best interests of for an initial down payment in cash. the farmers and of the government. It may be 3. The cash portion of the compensation should repeated here that: be prorated-the bigger the holding the 1. Any farmer eligible for allocation of fer.- smaller the per-acre cash payment, or vice lizers has the privilege of deciding whether versa. he will take his fertilizer by direct barter or 4. The government should provide the cash by loan barter. fund through the sale of the public land, 2. Fertilizer distribution is not merely a device sale of government-owned enterprises to to collect rice from the farmers, Its timely private individuals, and through whatever . . .other means that can be devised. distribution as an aid to increased rice pro- duction is the major, continuing objective of A number of the conclusions or recommen- the fertilizer program. dations are made with considerable reluctance. As to the rent reduction prograi, it is an Though they are proposed with the island's accomplished fact. The evasions do not en- precariously balanced economy in mind, some danger the program, but they should' be cot- improvements will involve an immediate de- rected. Continued success lies in: crease in government income and an increase in government spendings. The extent to which 1. The immediate election of local land com- the government's financial position can permit missions to be charged with the main re- this will, of course, be made the subject of very sponsibility for the enforcement of the May careful study. At the same time, one must bear 25, 1951, rent reduction law. in mind the fact that, if the basis of Taiwan's 2. Sufficient government supervision and, if economy and principal source of revenue is to necessary, pressure to insure strict interpre- be protected against further deterioration, funds tation of the letter and spirit of the rent law to aid agriculture should be given a priority by local administrative authorities. commensurate with its importance. 148 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 16. From a Landlord to a Land Reformer In June 1951, upon the completion of his second visit and field trip in Taiwan, Ladejinsky attended a dinner party given by the Chinese Association of Land Reform, apparently in his honor. These remarks, which surely he never intended for publication, were found in typescript among his personal papers. They may have been typed from a hastily drafted handwritten script or, equally likely, from shorthand notes taken by the association's secretary and forwarded to Ladejinsky as a memento of the occasion. The language suggests the latter. It is presented here partly because Ladejinsky recounts in it a bit of his personal history and partly because it presents him, after one or two unaccustomed dinner party drinks, in an untypically gay, romantic mood. MR. HSIAO, THANK YOU FOR THE very kind One was Russian Communism and the other words you have spoken about me. As a general was General Douglas MacArthur. custom, I am supposed to say something in I was born in Ukraine in the southwestern reply to the remarks just made by our host, but part of Russia. When I left Russia, I was only I would rather prefer to have our guest, Gen- seventeen years old. Ukraine was the richest eral Chang Chun, tell us some stories instead province of Russia at that time and my family or to have Dr. Chiang Mon-lin say something. owned a lot of land and several flour mills as However, I am not a dictator, so I do not think well. But in spite of all the richness of the re- I could command them to talk. gion, most Ukrainian peasants were very poor Just minutes ago, Dr. T. H. Shen joked on because most of the land was in the hands of me by saying that I am an absentee landlord in big landlords like my father and grandfather. the United States. Yes, I am, because I have re- You remember that in 1863 there was a cently bought seventeen acres of land in Vir- liberation of serfs in Russia and many peasants ginia at the cost of $1,000 per acre, mainly for were set free. But the liberation did not do the purpose of preventing any loss to my say- much good to these liberated peasants because ings due to the inflation of U.S. currency. But the land still belonged to the landlords and was Dr. Shen did not know that at one time I was not set free. The life of these peasants was still a real landlord. Recently, I have been called so hard that a great many of them went to a Communist or a radical in Japan. I believe I Siberia to look for land in order to make a would not be so called in Formosa. I am also bare living from it. known as a land reformer. But, as a matter of In 1917 a revolution broke out in Moscow fact, I was at one time a staunch conservative. when Russia was still at war with Germany. At I have worked hard the whole day today and that time, Kerensky, the leader of the Menshe- felt very tired. But, having had several cups of viks Party, was at the head of the revolutionary "cheap" beer tonight, which, I hope, would not army and came into power. He tried to de- cost our host as much as (the) six silver dollars mocratize the country but did not know how a bottle it did cost me in Chengtu in 1949, 1 to do it. While he was still wondering about feel refreshed again in spite of a whole day's what he should do for the country, another hard work. So I am ready now to tell you some- revolution was started in November of the same thing about the story of how I have changed year under the leadership of Lenin, who was myself from a conservative to a land reformer. the head of the Bolshevik Party. To begin with, I should say that I had two In starting the revolution, Lenin, without teachers who made me undergo such a change. sitting down to write fine laws, immediately From a Landlord to a Land Reformer 149 told the Russian soldiers at the front that, if learned from the Russian revolution. There was they laid down their arms and came back to at that time only one support in Russia-peas- Russia, they would be allowed to divide up ants' support or no support at all. Lenin would all the big landlords' land and have it for them- not have succeeded in permanently seizing the selves. The soldiers immediately responded to power of whole Russia had he not called for Lenin's call and left the battle ground. The the soldiers to leave the front line and come land was duly divided and given to the soldiers, home to divide up the landlords' land or had and my family (property) was completely liqui- Kerensky and his followers not been so foolish dated. You know Ukraine was a part of Russia. as to try to take back the land from the soldiers But the Ukrainian people were radically dif- and return it to its original owners. Kerensky ferent from the Russians in custom, language, was completely defeated by Lenin and was and culture. In spite of these differences yet, never able to rise again because he did not the Ukrainian peasants supported the Bolshe- understand the psychology and desires of the viks when they received the land. In this way peasants. Lenin got a huge army of supporters from these The second lesson I have learned was from soldiers and Kerensky was thrown out of power General Douglas MacArthur. immediately. I have known General MacArthur for many Later, Lenin was criticized for his way of years, but I did not really know him until 1946 doing things. Someone asked him how he knew when I went to Japan and worked with him. that the soldiers wanted the land so badly. Did Before that time, I thought that General Mac- they vote for it? "Yes, they did," replied Lenin. Arthur would not be interested in such matters "How did they vote?" asked someone. Lenin as land reform because generals usually do not replied: "They voted by their legs. The fact have time and interest in such matters, espe- that these soldiers immediately left the battle cially a five-star general like MacArthur. But ground in response to my call was ample proof after I worked with him, I found that Mac- of what they really desired and was more mean- Arthur was not only interested in land reform ingful than regular voting." but also in social insurance, in local govern- Soon after Kerensky was driven out of Mos- ment, and other matters. cow, he organized an army in South Russia and After the Allies occupied Japan, General began to fight back northward. At one time MacArthur was the first one to see the urgent Kerensky's army was very near to Moscow and need of reform in Japan's land system. In Japan it looked as if Lenin were to be completely de- as elsewhere in Asiatic countries, most of the feated and Kerensky would come to power land was owned by landlords and the majority again. But Kerensky's generals made another of peasants were leading a poor life. Soon after grave mistake. When the territories lost to the occupation, General MacArthur instituted land Bolsheviks' army were recovered one by one by reform and carried it through very successfully. Kerensky's army, they wrote many measures, The reform has given land to the majority of left to right, to dispose those lands divided by the Japanese peasants. Before the reform, Japa- the Bolsheviks. But by the measures they wrote nese peasants were worn out economically and and adopted, they insisted that anything done the whole peasantry was a hotbed for Commu- by the Bolsheviks was no good and must be nism. These peasants were indifferent to the changed. As a result, they re-installed all the Government and tried to seek relief by siding old laws in replacement of the new ones intro- with the Communists. As a result of the reform, duced by the Bolsheviks in all places recaptured the picture was entirely changed. Most peasants from the enemy. The land which had already who formerly supported the Communist Party been divided up by the soldiers was returned turned their support to the government, as evi- to its original owners by. force. In this way, denced many times during elections. This was Kerensky soon lost all the sympathy and sup- one of the great things that General MacArthur port of the people and soldiers, both of his had done for the Japanese people while he was own and of the enemy's, and his whole cause the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces was lost immediately. in occupied Japan. His interest in other social This was the first lesson which I have reforms was also widely known. 150 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 One day when I was with the General in his cause for the present agrarian unrest in the big office in Tokyo, I asked him how he became rural areas of the Philippine Islands could well interested in land reform. He told me that his be traced back to the failure of that program interest in land reform had grown out of three during General Arthur MacArthur's time. lessons he learned from history, his father, and The third lesson was the General's own ex- his own experience in the Philippine Islands. perience in the Philippine Islands. During The first lesson that made him interested in World War II the Philippine Islands were occu- land problems, the General told me, was the pied by the Japanese. After the Japanese had teaching of history about the ancient Roman surrendered and the Philippine government Empire. As everyone knows, the Romans had was reestablished, it was found that many rifles conquered practically the whole of Europe and were still left in the hands of the guerillas. This Africa and succeeded in establishing a great would make a nuisance to the government. To empire. But the Romans didn't know how to recover those rifles, President Quezon issued govern the empire. They paid no attention to an order saying that fifteen pesos would be agriculture or to the interests of the peasants. offered as a reward for every rifle surrendered As well-described by Professor Sinknovich of to the government, but the result of this order Columbia University in his book entitled Hay was that not many rifles were forthcoming. The and History, the Romans lost the empire be- President then asked General MacArthur how cause of their negligence in matters relating to to recover those rifles. General MacArthur sug- agriculture and peasantry. Without hay there gested that, in addition to every fifteen pesos will be no agriculture and without agriculture offered, another fifteen acres of land should be there will be no government. Despite the rewarded for every rifle surrendered to the gov- changes of time, the lesson from the funda- ernment. If a peasant turned in two rifles, his mental cause of the downfall of the Roman reward should be doubled. But President Que- Empire is still applicable to present world con- zon did not accept the General's advice. The ditions, especially in this part of the world result is that the Philippine government is now where the economic structure is still similar to still paying a tremendous amount of money the hay economy of Europe in the Roman time. and life in fighting for those rifles without The second lesson, the General told me, is much success. a story he learned from his father, General Ar- It was these two teachers, Russian Commu- thur MacArthur, about forty-five years ago nism and General Douglas MacArthur, who when the latter was the military Governor of have changed me from a landlord to a so-called the Philippines. At that time, the Philippines land reformer today. was, as it is still now, essentially an agricultural In conclusion, I would like to add that, if country. In the country the landlords often the majority of the people in a community owned land ranging from several hundred to could not live a contented and satisfactory life, several thousand acres, while comparatively few the minority people who own large estates peasants possessed any land at all. The general would not have a comfortable living, sooner or economic condition was poor and the social later. It is not only for the sake of others but order was bad. Trying to improve the situation, for the enlightened self-interest alone that General MacArthur proposed to divide up those those minority people should share their lot big landed estates and introduce the American with the majority in the economic life. It is family-size farm system into the Philippine true that land reform would not cure all the Islands, distributing the small pieces of land as evils of an economically underdeveloped com- a result of land division to the landless peas- munity. It is also true that it will not neces- ants. His proposal failed because of strong sarily even improve or raise the living condi- opposition from the big landlords, with the re- tions of the majority of peasants. But it will at sult that most of the Philippine peasants are least give them some satisfaction of their basic even today still toiling on somebody's farm with- needs, and it is the struggle for the satisfaction out any hope or relief. What happened has had of those basic needs that has led Communism a profound effect later on the social develop- to grow to such an extent as to threaten world ment of the islands, in that the most important peace today. The Plow Outbids the Sword in Asia 151 I left Russia thirty years ago, as you left the Cheng is an energetic land reformer. He has Chinese mainland two years ago. This is the carried out the rent reduction program and will lesson that I have learned in my life and also continue to carry out other necessary reforms. the very lesson for you to learn. Where there All these reforms will have a profound effect on is life, there is hope. When I left Tokyo, Gen- this island as well as on the Chinese mainland. eral MacArthur expressed his sincere hope that I believe that these reforms which have been I should help the Chinese government, not only done in Formosa in recent years will be at least in carrying out those necessary land reforms on partly applicable to a land reform program on this island but also in instituting those reforms the mainland when you people go back. to be applied to the Chinese mainland. Now in I thank Mr. Hsiao and you for the kind at- Formosa I am glad to know that Premier Chen tention you have given me this evening. 17. The Plow Outbids the Sword in Asia This short article, the subtitle of which is "How General MacArthur Stole Communist Thunder in Japan with Democratic Land Reforms, Our Most Potent Weapon for Peace" is a companion piece to the "Too Late to Save Asia?" article of a year earlier. This appeared in Country Gentleman (now the Farm Journal) in June 1951. Reprinted with permission from Country Gentleman, @ 1951 The Curtis Publishing Company. TO AMERICANS THE WORD "FARMING" con- It is difficult for an American to appreciate jures up thoughts of prosperous communities, the Japanese farmer's hunger for land. Over vast panoramas of wheat and corn, herds of fat 6 million farm families are crowded onto less cattle, bulging silos, and good family living. than 15 million acres of land, broken up into To Asians, where four out of every five till 110 million plots of all conceivable shapes. In the good earth, "farming" is synonymous with the United States there are 160 acres of farm- crushing poverty, a bad case of landlordism, land for each farm family-in Japan only 2.3 heavy taxation, usury, and debt without end. For acres. And two-thirds of Japan's farmers work these nameless millions the equivalent of $25 less than 2.3 acres each. can mean the difference between comparative Four-fifths of Japan's cultivated land are de- security and total catastrophe. This poverty on voted to food crops; more than half of that the land has been intensified in many areas by land is in rice. The farmers are among the political unrest and war. best in the world. They garden rather than The Communists, with a quick eye for the farm; the land never lies fallow; some of it is main chance, have been making the most of double- or triple-cropped. They are among the peasant discontent by holding out that most world's heaviest users of chemical fertilizers enticing of baits-ownership of the land. The and manure. They get 65 bushels of rough rice Communists succeeded in China. They have and 26 bushels of wheat per acre, or more than failed utterly in Japan. There, General Mac- twice the yields in other parts of Asia. Truly, Arthur stole the Communists' thunder and made they grow two blades where normally one would the landless peasant's dream of a piece of land grow. he could call his own come true. In Japan we Japan's intensive farming is a never-ending have forged an economic and political weapon cycle of toil. Yet, even the owner operator has more potent in Asia than the strongest bat- had little to show for his pains because his talions and blandishments the Communists can holding is too small and because before the war put forth. Japan's economic, political, and social struc- 152 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 ture pressed down on the backs of the farmer operators could retain 7.5 acres-or 30 acres in and his wife. This was particularly true of the Japan's northernmost island where land is more tenants. And there were plenty of them. In plentiful. In cases where subdivision would pre-occupation Japan, only 30 percent of the lower the productivity of the land, the owner farmers owned the land they cultivated; the operators could cultivate a larger acreage. other 70 percent either owned no land or were The price of land was fixed by the Japanese part tenants and part owners. government at per-acre rates of 3,000 yen for In the United States the tenant-to-owner rice land and 1,860 yen for dry land, when the ladder is much traveled but not in pre-surrender rate was fifty yen to $1.00. The government, in Japan where once a tenant, always a tenant was addition, paid a subsidy to the landlord. Ten- the rule. The terms of tenure were much too ants who cultivated the land acquired by the burdensome. The tenant paid 50 percent of the government had priority of purchase and could crop as rental; he provided, in addition, his pay for the land at once or in thirty annual own expensive chemical fertilizer, farmhouse, installments. farm buildings, implements and seed, and There was no attempt to abolish tenancy numerous assessments other than the land tax. completely; this was thought neither feasible A tenant was lucky to keep 30 percent of the nor desirable. Only the abuses were to be cor- crop for himself. Eviction was a common prac- rected. Cash rent ceilings of 25 percent of the tice. A typical agreement said to the landlord, value of the crop were established; a written "You may at any time recover your land." And contract was introduced which specified the there is the old Japanese saying, "A farmer is rights and obligations of landlord and tenant. like a sesame seed-the more you squeeze, the The administration of the land transfer was more you get." This well described his life and in the hands of local, prefectural (state), and work. national land commissions. The local land coin- This plight of the majority of the Japanese missions were the pivotal agencies to decide farmers was not lost on General MacArthur. who was to buy which plot and at what price. He remembered the failure of the Philippine They were democratically elected, each village government in 1945 to act upon his advice to commission consisting of five tenants, three fight farm unrest among the Filipinos through landlords, and two owner operators. more widespread ownership of land. He under- The occupation helped to formulate policies stood that any real chance of cutting the but the legislation, administration, and enforce- political ground from under the feet of the ment were initiated and performed solely by Communists, of bringing even a semblance of the Japanese. The scope of work was enor- democracy to Japan, depended on the improve- mous, for it meant buying and reselling 30 ment of the lot of those who worked the land. million individual plots in 12,000 communities. He knew that there was no point preaching There was serious opposition to the program democracy to empty stomachs. to be overcome. Some landlords attempted to On December 15, 1945, General MacArthur impede the program by illegal eviction of ten- issued the historic directive, ordering the Japa- ants, lawsuits against the Japanese government nese government "to take measures to insure alleging that the reform law was unconstitu- that those who till the soil of Japan shall have tional, and through propaganda to dissuade the a more equal opportunity to enjoy the fruits of tenants from buying land. The courts ruled their labor." the law constitutional, and in most cases ten- In compliance with this directive, the Japa- ants refused to be moved from the land. Linger- nese government drafted a land reform pro- ing doubts as to the intention of the govern- gram, formally enacted into law in October ment to press the program were dissipated as 1946. The reform provided for the purchase by the first purchases and sales of land became the government from the landlords of 5 million known. acres for resale to the tenants who had priority The fact that the occupation backed the pro- of purchase. Absentee landlords were required gram hadi much to do with the overcoming of to sell all their land; noncultivating resident the opposition. But even General MacArthur landlords could retain 2.5 acres, and owner with his authority and the confidence of the The Plow Outbids the Sword in Asia 153 people could not have altered a traditional land a reasonable assurance of a decent standard of structure if conditions had not been ripe. They living. The occupation farm policies were de- were indeed. Land reform was not an occupa- signed, therefore, not to seek unattainable final tion whim but a well-judged response to the solutions but to alleviate burdensome economic needs of the great majority. conditions and to forestall the Communist peril Three years after the inauguration of the that feeds on them. This much has been land purchase program, the task was accom- achieved. plished. A Japanese farmer once told me that The landlords, naturally, do not like the "A farmer without his land is like a man with- program. The great majority holds that reform out a soul." There are now many more farmers is bad for their own families, but the same ma- in Japan with "souls"; more than three million, jority admit that widespread land ownership is in fact-the number of households which at definitely good for the village. The landlords last have acquired a stake in their communities realize that the reform has strong roots. How- by purchasing 5.5 million acres of land. The ever, he would be a bold man who would assert acreage operated by the tenants has declined that a direct or indirect attack on the reform is from 46 to 11 percent. The owner operator is out of the question after the occupation. now Japan's typical farmer. This all came about The acceptance of the new system among without a single loss of life, the shedding of a the new owner operators is general, of course. drop of blood, or a yen's worth of damage to They have finally acquired the one thing the property. farmers the world over want most: a piece of Less obvious, yet very important, is the oc- land of their own. A new song one hears about cupation's effort to improve farming practices. the village shows how they feel: Much attention has been paid to insect and plant diseases which cause in Japan an annual The same paddy field, but now my own; loss of not less than 10 percent of all crops. The richer soil yields golden blades of rice. This is an enormous loss in a country that must Heavy is the crop and light is my heart; import nearly one-fourth of her food require- Sharp is the sickle, and blue is the sky. ments. American technical aid has also gone Hail this happy harvest day! into experiment station work; farm taxation; Bright shines the sun on my own piece of land! crop insurante; home life improvement; and farm cooperatives, which are important agen- The American export of ideas and deeds is cies in Japan, handling most of the farm prod- narrowing the traditional differences between ucts sales, half of farmer purchases, and much social classes in the village. As one Japanese farm credit business. farm owner told me in early 1948, "It is high One typical farm Americanism exported to time for the landlord to step one down and the Japan is the rural youth clubs, patterned after tenant to step one up so that the two may meet the 4-H Clubs and Extension Young Men and for the first time." They are meeting now on Women Clubs. Only one year old, they have the farm committees, cooperative and school a membership of 500,000, and indications are boards, and village offices. They rub elbows, that Japanese rural youth take to the idea like dealing with common problems. Here lies the ducks to water. They are the boys and girls on hope of new leadership and the idea of citizen- the "green bicycles," as they call them in Japan, ship rights-both foreign to the pre-MacArthur carrying the extension work message from vil- village. This along with the ownership of land lage to village. spread among the multitude of farmers is the It is too early to strike a balance sheet of foundation of a more satisfying rural life and the American grass-roots diplomacy in rural the beginning of political and social democracy. Japan, but the outlook is encouraging. No re- The occupation, by meet'ing the farm issue form can add to the very limited arable acreage squarely, has destroyed one of the fertile sources of Japan. Even under a system of equal dis- of Communism in Japan and has given the tribution of arable land, a farm family would country a good measure of political stability. In own only 2.3 acres. This is almost 2 acres short the view of one like myself who saw the Com- of what is needed to give the Japanese farmer munists rise to power in Russia, failure to ease 154 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the farmers' lot would have turned the Japanese ers are not met. However, the Communists in countryside into a hotbed of unrest and possibly Asia still hold the stolen trump cards of "every delivered it to the Communists. The occupa- farmer on his own patch of land-every rice tion's farm aid strengthened and multiplied bowl full." the independent land-owning peasants, the This slogan is in the American, not Com- group that makes for a middle-of-the-road, munist, tradition. Senator Thomas Hart Benton stable rural society, lending no ear to political of Andrew Jackson days, the man most respon- extremists. For this reason, we-and not the sible for shaping the land policy of the United Communists-have made political capital from States, had this to say: "The freeholder . . . is the rural diplomacy we conducted here. Ours the natural supporter of a free government; was the gain because General MacArthur and it should be the policy of republics to grasped from the beginning the need to fight multiply their freeholders, as it is the policy Communist ideology with an effective version of monarchies to multiply tenants. We are a re- of American farm tradition. public, and we wish to continue so: then multi- The Communists of Japan tried hard to ex- ply the class of freeholders; sell for a reasonable ploit the agrarian difficulties of the country. price to those who are able to pay; and give, They regarded the village as their very special without price, to those who are not . . ." oyster, and they cherished the ambition to use In Japan General MacArthur didn't wait it as a base from which they would infiltrate for the Communists to usurp this heritage and the entire Japanese economy. Japanese Com- appear as the champions of social betterment. munists frankly admit now their lack of popu- What holds good for post-MacArthur rural lar support in rural areas. This was eloquently Japan holds good, with variations, for all of proved by the September 1949 election of pre- Asia. That continent, too, wants a demonstra- fectural farm commissions when only two Com- tion that what we call democracy is useful and munists were elected out of a total of 456 profitable. To carry conviction, this idea must members. Today the Communists' role as a po- be wrapped in a package of economic and so- litical party in the village has almost vanished. cial well-being; it must combine technical What has taken place in Japan is food for know-how to increase the productivity of the thought in meeting the farm problems in the land with reforms that insure the farmer "the rest of Asia, in the Philippines, and in the fruits of his labor." Our efforts in that direction Middle East. It is a commonplace that no gov- may well help fill the empty rice bowls and ernment in Asia can hope to survive without win the firmest allies in the clash of ideas with peasant support. No armed force can keep the the Communists. Then we will have won the pot from boiling over if the needs of the farm- peace in Asia. 18. Field Observations in the Punjab Sometime in August or September 1952, Ladejinsky arrived in India and remained there for about three months, during which he made field trips in the Punjab, Madras, and Kashmir and prepared reports on each for the Planning Commission. The setting for his temporary duty visit is provided by the following telegram of March 17, 1952, from Ambassador Bowles in New Delhi to the Secretary of State: GO[ heavily committed, particularly after recent elections, to program land reform. However, initiative in hands of states and so far progress slow. Very little experience, knowledge or understanding among legislation most state assemblies of this complicated difficult problem and results likely be rather disappointing and many mistakes probably inevitable. Field Observations in the Punjab 155 Discussed situation with Deshmukh recently and told him particularly our experience Japan and South Korea. He said deeply appreciate Ladejinsky now Tokyo come in India for say ninety days study what has been done, go over projected plans and make recommendations to state and central governments. Earnestly hope Ladejinsky's assignment here this period can be arranged as it vitally important for economic development India land reform gets off on right basis. Since state assemblies start to meet in May, time element important. Also wish Dept consider possibility assigning Ladejinsky here permanent basis to deal this problem. Ambassador Murphy in Tokyo was reluctant to release Ladejinsky for the temporary duty requested and insisted that he could not be spared until mid-August at the earliest, hence the time interval between Bowles's request and Ladejinsky's arrival in India. Although Bowles had also asked for consideration of Ladejinsky's assignment to India on a permanent basis, a request on which the department initiated preliminary action, Ladejinsky did not come to India on a permanent assignment until some fifteen years later, when he was posted to New Delhi by the World Bank. Ambassador Murphy cabled from Tokyo on May 16, 1952: "In my opinion permanent transfer Ladejinsky would constitute gravest loss to this Embassy and unfortunate diversion of unique talent and experience . . . I recognize India's need expert advice land reform and Ladejinsky's special talent. Therefore would reluctantly concur in TDY maximum ninety days. His permanent transfer, however, would be over my strongest possible protests." In the absence of any stated explanation for the selection of the three states chosen for Ladejinsky's field observations, I assume the Punjab was chosen because it is the heartland for wheat production in India, Madras because it had recently been the scene of violent peasant demonstrations, and Kashmir because it had recently carried out a radical land reform. Ladejinsky was attached to the Indian Planning Commission for the purpose of these studies. The reports were made directly to the Planning Commission and discussed in each case with its members and staff. The following report is dated October 8, 1952. I do not have the dispatch number or date of its transmittal to Washington. ON SEPTEMBER 20 THE WRITER of these notes which may be questioned. If, on the other hand, and A. N. Seth, research officer of the Planning our brush with the land reform situation in this Commission of the government of India, set state has any value, it will be because the vil- out to visit a few villages in the Punjab to ob- lages we looked into and the people we talked serve the implementation of Punjab Tenants to were largely a matter of chance; and statis- (Security of Tenure) Act, 1950, as amended ticians say that, when selection is left to chance, on December 27, 1951. Time at our disposal a small percentage may serve reasonably well to being very short, we could not delve into the gauge the whole. problem as deeply as we should have liked. We Apart from the fairly large proportion of visited only three villages, but there we met owner operators, the tenants in the Punjab fall with a goodly number of farmers as well as into two categories: first, occupancy tenants with a few officials concerned with land mat- with heritable rights, a comparatively small ters. What follows, therefore, is not a definitive group cultivating from 7 to 10 percent of the account of the reform in the Punjab but rather land; second, the so-called tenants-at-will who a set of impressions, the soundness of some of cultivate between 30 to 40 percent of the land 156 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 but enjoy no permanent rights and can be Upon the promulgation of the act, it became evicted by the landlord at his pleasure. It is for apparent that it would not serve the purpose the sake of this group that the act was enacted. for which it was created. In the words of a Subject to the qualifications made in para- principal officer of the government of Punjab, graph one, then the following main conclusion "The number of such (large] landowners in the may be drawn with a fair degree of certainty: state being small, the act thus, in fact, touched The legislation falls short of its goal "to provide only a limited number of tenants-at-will--and for the security of tenure to the tenants." This "the relief granted by the act . . , was extremely in turn is based on these findings: meager." The legislation was, therefore, dras- tically revised and reenacted a year later under 1. Some of the provisions of the act and devel- the name of the Punjab Tenants (Security of opments to which they are giving rise are Tenure) Amendment Act, 1951. endangering rather than strengthening se- The main points of this act are: curity of tenure; the number of tenants ejected from the land is likely to be greater 1. Security of tenure was extended to five years; than the number of those who will achieve 2. The area a landlord can keep for self-culti- security by virtue of the same act. vation was reduced from 100 standard or 2. The act is an example of legislation which 200 ordinary acres to 50 standard or 100 failed to take into account large-scale dis- ordinary; placement of tenants and preemption of the 3. A tenant who has been in continuous culti- land by the landlords on real or fancied varion of the land for more than twelve grounds of self-cultivation. years has the right to purchase the land; and 3. The right of land purchase with which the 4. Rents were fixed at one-third instead of the act endows the tenant is a provision of ex- customary one-half of the gross crop. tremely restricted applicability, and few ten- ants are likely to benefit thereby. The revised act is indeed an improvement 4. The reduction of rent from one-half to one- over the original one and, if accepted at face third of the group will, at best, apply only to value, would seem to give the tenants-at-will a those with legal right to remain on the land number of significant privileges. But in prac- undisturbed for a period of five years. Those tice this is not the case, judging by the applica- with no security of tenure lack due bargain- tion of the provisions, their consequences, and ing power to enforce the rent reduction. the expressed views of the tenants. 5. It is questionable if the patwari register In the past the landlord could and did shift reflects the true landlord-tenant arrange- the tenant-at-will from one piece of land to ments. The patwari is heavily biased in favor another or evicted him altogether, even though of the landlord. the original conditions of tenancy were not in 6. Even if the act were so drawn as to insure question. Interviews with the farmers revealed security of tenure and widespread ownership that, ever since the land reform became a sub- of land among tenants, it would still need ject of governmental concern, shiftings and to provide for an enforcement mechanism evictions became a common practice to which without which no legislation can be trans- the landlords resorted in order to prevent ac- lated into meaningful action. crual of any claims in favor of the tenant. It follows that, from the point of view of the The original act of 1950 is made up of tenant, the single most important provision of numerous provisions, but the significant one the act relates to security of tenure, and its test gave the tenant-at-will security of tenure for lies in whether or not the tenant obtained the a period of four years. But it applied only much sought-after security. where the landlord had land in excess of 100 The privilege of remaining undisturbed on standard acres or 200 ordinary acres. The acre- the same land for five years in the light of the age below this limit (100 or 200) the landlord former lack of security is a gain and is gener- could claim for self-cultivation and evict the ally acknowledged by the farmers. On the other tenants from that portion of land. hand, the time period is a limited one and does Field Observations in the Punjab 157 not compare with Bombay and Hyderabad, significant reduction in rent. Since there is no where a ten-year period of fixed tenure was lack of farm labor eager for employment, the adopted. Moreover, what a tenant really wants landlords can do better working the land with is permanent occupancy with all the rights it hired hands. It follows then that tenants on entails, but this the act does not give him. holdings of 50 standard acres or less get no se- The purchase provision will be discussed in curity of tenure at all. Tenants on land in ex- a separate paragraph, but it should be noted cess of 50 standard acres receive security of here that the five-year security period does tenure for a period of five years, subject of not augur well for land purchasing because course to the qualification noted in the last two the act confers upon the tenants the right to sentences of the previous paragraph. After the buy land only after more than twelve years of five-year period they can be evicted at the op- continuous occupation of the land. tion of the landlord. From the point of view of the tenant, the In order to determine how large a group of real flaw in the legislation lies not in the limited tenants stand to benefit or lose from the security but rather in the principle of "permis- amended act, one would have to know the sible self-cultivation." This has in effect given distribution of landlords' holdings of more than the landlords the right to displace tenants and 50 standard acres and the number of tenants in replace them with hired labor or with erstwhile relation to the total tenanted area and total tenants willing to remain on the land on terms number of tenants. Data on these points are laid down by the landlords. Before the amended lacking, but it is safe to infer that, as the bulk act came into force, the landlords appear to of the area is made up of holdings of 50 stand- have largely exercised the right of resuming ard acres or less, a large number of tenants do self-cultivation of 100 standard or 200 ordinary not receive protection under the act. The fear acres, i.e. they have displaced the tenants who complex engendered by the recent legislation cultivated the land. The amended act reduces among the landlords has caused large-scale evic- the area for resumption to 50 standard or 100 tions which may not have otherwise obtained. ordinary acres and provided for restitution of Hence the conclusion that the act may have lands to tenants who were evicted under the harmed more tenants than it has benefited. original act from land in excess of 50 standard The displacements noted above are not mere or 100 ordinary acres. For instance, if a land- logical inferences; the references are based on lord owned 150 standard acres of which he our first-hand village observations and uncon- cultivated 60, under the original act he could tested statements made by the tenants in the evict tenants from 40 standard acres in order presence of landlords and local officials. Village to bring 100 standard acres under personal Maina of the Rohrak district is a case in point. cultivation. Under the amended act the 40 It is a small village with but 200 families and standard acres would be restored to the evicted 2,100 acres, of which 1,700 are under cultiva- tenants. However, we were told that if he had tion. Owner-cultivated land was around 1,200 owned only 99 standard acres instead of 150 acres, and until not so long ago the remaining and had evicted tenants from the remaining 39 500 acres were worked by tenants. The major acres, the evicted tenants could not get protec- portion of the tenanted area was held by three tion under the amended act since the original landlords. act did not apply in cases of landlords holding One of the most surprising statements made less than 100 standard acres. If so, a large num- by the patwaril was that the tenanted acreage ber of tenants may not get the benefit of the has declined so sharply that at the time of our restoration clause under the amended act. visit it was a mere 20 acres. The first reaction If the act had originally called for 50 stan- was to congratulate the villagers on the virtual dard acres of self-cultivation, the degree of dis- disappearance of the tenancy system. It would placement would have been smaller; but dis- have been a premature gesture, for in reality placement was bound to take place for two nothing has changed in the land ownership pat- reasons: the fear of the landlord lest further changes in the legislation conferred more rights on tenants and the fact that the act calls for a 1. Village head. 158 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 tern of the village despite the seeming elimi- as exemplified by the owner tenant of the vil- nation of tenancy. The landlords still have the lage of Bapori who enjoyed the privilege of land; only the status of the tenants has under- sitting alongside with the landlords, have ap- gone a change-they continue to work the land parently no interest in the act. In reply to the either as hired hands or under unchanged condi- question as to what he thought of the new legis- tions, except that their names no longer appear lation, he stated that he knew nothing about in the patwari register2 as bonafide tenants. The it and did not care to know. But to the harijan dozen or so assembled farmers were rather re- tenant who squatted on the floor just outside luctant at first to account for the change, espe- the room where the rest assembled, and to the cially in the presence of a couple of landlords. nonharijan tenants who were squatting in the Gradually, however, as answers followed ques- room just inside the door, the act is not a tions, it appeared that the land had been taken boon. For an undetermined number of tenants back by the landlords. A landlord provided the who may even be the majority, the act failed to answer in reply to a question as to what he bring security of tenure. By the same token knew and thought of the act. He stated rather they have moved one step down from the al- bluntly that he was familiar with its provision ready low rung of the agricultural ladder on and that was why he had taken his land back. which they had a precarious hold. But this was only part of the explanation that The corollary of this is that the tenant is lies behind the movement of resuming land for hungering for land on any terms. Under the self-cultivation. circumstances, the main concern of those we That the process of "proletarization" of the interviewed was not a fixed period of occu- village of Maina was greatly accentuated by the pancy but how to retain a foothold on the land. self-cultivation provision of the act is undis- Conditions of tenancy assume secondary im- puted, but it had evidently gone on for some portance. The statement of one of the tenants time before the enactment of the original 1950 that "the law should make certain that I have act. The mere land reform talk preceding the some land" is quite understandable. Since more legislative enactment convinced the landlords often than not such tenants have no land, par- that it simply was not "safe" to rent land to ticularly in the villages we visited, they are tenants or, at any rate, to have the patwari ready to cultivate land on any terms. Failing register bear witness to that. Nobody present that, they are in danger of becoming hired denied what is obviously a common practice in hands with all the disadvantages that the status Maina village. The procedure is simple: the entails. landlord tells the patwari to reregister the ten- The more specific and inevitable consequence anted land in his name as a self-cultivator, and of the right of displacement is that the positive the request is usually complied with. Ethical re- provision of the act, the reduction of rent from straints hardly enter into the picture. The act one-half to one-third of the crop, cannot but simplified matters considerably; landlords in the be subjected to wholesale violation. To have category under consideration do not have to force, the rent reduction must go hand-in-hand resort to the patwari register technique or to with real bargaining power, which in turn can the shifting of tenants from holding to holding come only with unquestioned security of tenure. or plot to plot. All he has to do to accomplish To the extent that only a certain number of the same end is to stand on his rights under tenants are likely to obtain that under the act, the personal cultivation provision of the act. the rest will not benefit from it. It is quite While the landlords know what to do and possible that some landlords will not claim all are competent to cope with the new develop- the permissible land for self-cultivation, yet it ments generated by the act, the tenants appear would be idle to expect that the tenants will helpless and bewildered. This is particularly insist on the rent reduction, realizing as they true of those who have no land of their own do that the landlord can always eject them on to sustain them to any degree. Those who do, the ground of personal use of the land. It may be concluded, therefore, that while the rent re- duction is indeed a welcome step in the right 2. Village head land register book. direction, its effect will be limited in scope. Field Observations in the Punjab 159 In the course of our trip the question of and terms of payment are reasonable. The act land ownership came in for a good deal of con- does not provide for that. sideration. If there is one thing on which all The ineffectiveness of the Punjab legislation tenants are unanimous, it is the wish to own is heightened by what seems to us the lack of land. This is the highest goal to which they all an enforcement mechanism. The act imposes aspire. The act is not unmindful of that, and so the responsibility for implementation upon the it gives the tenant the right to purchase his magistrates and revenue officials-the collectors, holding after at least twelve years of continuous revenue assistants, tehsildars, naib tehsildars, occupation. But this right is illusory because circle kanungos, ending with the officers closest for reasons given above many tenants find it to the villagers-the patwaris. It is our obser- difficult to prove in law continuous possession. vation that these individuals are not in a posi- The village of Ghdhaam-Kalanaur, where all of tion to insure for the tenants whatever rights the land is tenanted, provides another illustra- do accrue to them under the act. tion of this difficulty. There the tenants have Rohtak district, for example, is made up of been in continuous cultivation of the land for about 1,000 villages with a population of about many generations, yet they are faced with the I million and supervised by a small number of problem of establishing occupancy of specific revenue officers of all grades (other than the holdings over a period of twelve years. At this patwaries). Their normal, prereform duties are time the village of 200 families is in the midst so complex and time-consuming that they can- of fighting a total of 145 eviction suits. not be expected to devote much effort to the Even if the twelve-year period were elimi- enforcement of rents and occupation rights af- nated, there is nothing in the act, as it stands fecting large numbers of tenants and a good now, which is particularly helpful to a tenant many landlords. Moreover, even if they could desiring to purchase land. The act states that spare the time, our impression of the officials "A tenant shall be deemed to have purchased we encountered on the trip is that they are at the land if he deposits the value thereof as so best indifferent and at worst hostile to the sub- fixed with the Assistant Collector within such ject of land reform and its implications. Many time as that officer appoints." In practice this of them belong to the landowning class against means that the tenant is expected to buy the whom the reform is or will increasingly be di- land at the market price (paragraph 13 of the rected. It would be idle to expect them to ad- "Introduction" of the Punjab Tenants [Security minister a law which is not in tune with their of Tenure] Act, 1950) and pay in one lump own convictions and, often, material interests. sum. Under such conditions of land acquisition, The patwari at the village level sheds much most schemes are doomed to defeat, no matter light on this point. He could serve as a most by whom initiated and where they take place. important link in administering the act, but as If a tenant could buy land at the prevailing against that there is the readiness with which market price and pay the full sum initially, he has been serving the cause of the landlords, there would be, of course, no need for a govern- as exemplified by his falsification of the patwari ment-sponsored land purchase scheme. But register. On a higher level, the very articulate when a government does become concerned and voluble magistrate of the city of X repre- with land ownership among tenants, two condi- sents the same attitude. Himself a landholder, tions are basic to such a program. First, the he made no secret of his opposition to the act and reform in general. It is a fair surmise that, price fixed by the government must be reason- in a landlord-tenant dispute, the tenant is at a able-that is, it must be adjusted to the ability considerable disadvantage from the very start if of the tenant to shoulder and discharge the fi- the case is to be adjudicated by the type of nancial obligation without any undue strain. magistrate referred to above. Second, the payments must be spread over a It is our belief that, if the act is to be prop- number of years. The tenants of the Punjab are erly administered, the villagers themselves must not in a position to buy land on conditions be entrusted with the lion's share of the task. other than those just cited. They told us re- By this we mean active participation of the peatedly that they wish to buy land if the price tenants, landlords, and owner cultivators, repre- 160 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 sented on a village commission or council, with vision and as a measure of rehabilitation of the authority to carry out the provisions of the others, this provision might permit self- act according to prescribed rules. The watch- cultivation of a subsistence holding by land- dogs of the act should be the people who know lords of all categories-be they absentee or intimately the past and present conditions in resident. the village and are in a position to prevent mal- 2. Rent reduction is meaningless without a de- practices which stem from an age-long superior gree of permanency of tenure. To deny the position of only one group of the village, tenant the latter is to deny him the benefit albeit a minority group. Not only is this type of reduced rents. of local enforcement desirable on practical 3. Land reform legislation, whether in the grounds but from a moral and political stand- Punjab or elsewhere, must provide a legal point as well. The community participation framework for the active participation of would ensure the changes of certain rights un- the people in the implementation of the pro- der the act, and something else besides-a more gram. Land reform cannot be carried out equitable social relationship among the diver- from the cities of Delhi, Madras, Hyderabad, gent groups of the village. The fact is that Bombay, Nagpur, and so forth. Decisions group participation, even if based on "class" concerning the correct status of individual lines, is a unifying rather than divisive force. landholdings, ownerships, and occupancy It may be further observed that the reform in rights, both past and pending, should be land tenure relationships and mode of execu- made on the spot by the villagers themselves tions are not entirely separable. It is a cardinal who have thorough knowledge of the exist- principle of democratic thought that ends and ing conditions. Illiteracy is not ignorance; it means of socioeconomic action may not be need not preclude assumption of responsi- considered apart from one another. In these bility and exercise of authority-develop- terms a freer and more democratic rural India ment most conducive for the kind of leader- would not come in the wake of a land reform ship presently absent in rural India. The program conducted entirely, or for the greater very nature of a land reform program de- part, along normal administrative lines with signed to benefit the large group of under- decisions rendered from on high. What is there- privileged demands that properly constituted fore called for is less governmental and more groups of farmers, equally representative of citizen participation in the enforcement of a all village interests, must be entrusted with program intended for those very citizens. the responsibility for doing the job. Only on Remedial measures are implicit in the anal- this basis can the letter and the spirit of the ysis of the act and the mentioned problems legislation be fulfilled. On economic, politi- arising from its application. They may be cal, and social grounds there appears to be no summed up here as follows: substitute for this approach. 4. If a land purchase program sponsored by 1. If the right of self-cultivation must be ex- the government for the benefit of the ten- tended to the landlord, it should be so re- ants is to be successful, it must be based on stricted as to reduce displacement of tenants a price which is financially manageable from to a minimum. While it may be necessary their point of view. This automatically pre- to protect the interests of small peasant cludes buying land at the prevailing market proprietors who have had to resort to leasing price which in the context of keen demand for short periods for a variety of reasons, for land is a competitive price with little or the absentee landlords with large holdings do no relation to the capitalized productive not seem to us to have a case for resump- value of the land. High market prices since tion. Tenants on lands which have not been the war have increased manifold; and, even cultivated by owners for a considerable though agricultural prices have followed period, say five years, may therefore get a suit, there is certainly no evidence that the right of permanent and heritable occupancy. tenants' capacity to assume obligations tinder At the same time, in order to exempt the high land values has improved any. Assum- small holders from the effects of this pro- ing that a measure enabling tenants to buy Field Observations in the Punjab 161 land must be designed so that they can dis- adopted, and we think it should be, the point of charge the responsibility of ownership with departure in fixing land prices should be dras- relative ease, concurrently improving the tically reduced and enforceable rentals in con- land and maintaining a decent standard of formance with the Floud Commission philoso- living, then it follows that the purchase pro- phy. Having done that, the price of the land vision of the Punjab Act would benefit only should be based on the cash equivalent of a the landowner and help maintain existing number of annual rentals and should be made land values and rents. payable in small annual payments. In short, the terms of sale should place the An alternative is not easy to suggest for the land securely in the hands of the tenants. If the simple reason that fixing land prices is normally sales plan required an appreciable initial pay- a difficult and thankless job particularly in India ment or a short period of amortization, the new where formation of land prices is characterized owners would have only a tenuous hold on the by a set of rather complex factors. "Scientific" land. The new owner who feared foreclosure approaches to fixing prices and fair rents have would have an instability of tenure similar to been tried in India in the past by all kinds of that of tenants. The owner who paid too high rural investigation commissions, but in the end a proportion of his income to meet payments they resorted to something less than one might on his newly acquired land would be in the call precise. This explains why the Floud Com- same position as a tenant who paid too high a mission, after a painstaking inquiry into the proportion of his farm income as rent. Also, determination of a fair rent, concluded by we must remember that fixed annual payments quoting approvingly the following: "The Com- have helped nullify efforts of farmers to achieve mission could only define fair rent by the rather permanent ownership. They have thereby in- indefinite description-such a share as shall creased tenancy rather than diminished it. A leave enough to the cultivator of the soil to en- land ownership plan should provide flexible able him to carry on the cultivation, to live in payments to allow for variations in crop yields reasonable comfort, and to participate to a rea- and in prices received for agricultural products sonable extent in the progress of improving and allow deferment of payments to enable the prosperity of his native land." new owner to build up a reserve and strengthen What is true of this key to fair rent seems him in his new enterprise. to us equally true with respect to fixing land These are some of the principles that consti- prices, namely, the welfare of those for whose tute a realistic government land purchase pro- sake a reform is initiated. A dose of arbitrari- grain to insure land ownership among tenants who have no means of their own to attain that ness or compulsion on the part of the state be- status. If this outline is basically valid, then the comes essential in redressing economic and Punjab Act and its land-purchasing provision social inequities which can no longer be ad- must have been written for a very 'rara avis" justed by the contending groups themselves. of a tenant. But for the run-of-the-mill tenant The Indian land reform legislation tc date who populates the villages of the Punjab, a new abounds in examples of this type of compul- act will have to be drawn up if the state has sion. It may very well be extended to price of any serious intentions of assisting him into land and payment for it. If this approach is ownership of the land he cultivates. 162 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 19. Land Reform Observations in Madras These observations in Tanjore, Chingleput, and Malabar districts, all in the one Madras state, help one to understand the tremendous diversity of conditions which complicate the efforts of those whose duty it is to deal with India's problems. Especially in Tanjore, where the Communists had gained a strong position in the countryside, the conditions made an indelible impression on Ladejinsky. This report, dated October 31, 1952, was transmitted to the U.S. Department of State in Dispatch 1150 dated November 6, 1952. Purpose and Method of Inquiry lords are never reticent to state their case, the results of our inquiries in terms of what we FOLLOWING THE TRIP TO THE PUNJAB, this were told and noted must be considered satis- observer, accompanied by M. S. Menon, official factory. On the other hand, we are conscious of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, spent of the fact that neither the time spent was long the week of September 23 to 30 in the state of enough nor the range of the investigation suffi- Madras. The main purpose of the trip was to ciently wide and detailed to lend infallibility to study the Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyal (Pro- our interpretations and conclusions. tection) Ordinance of August 23, 1952, and the reaction of the several interest holders in the land to the measure. We had little time at Summary and Findings our disposal, but we managed to visit not only three villages in Tanjore but also two villages This report concerns itself with tenants and in Malabar and three in Chingleput district. agricultural workers only-the terms under Our visits were never prearranged; the tenants, which they cultivate the landlords' land, their the pannaiyals,' and casual landless laborers consequences, and attempts to remedy them: were met in the villages or gathered at random from the fields as we went along. The answers 1. In Tanjore, Malabar, and Chingleput agri- were elicited by easy, informal talks from which cultural efficiency, the output of the land, and . the rural standard of living are all at a very all air of authority was carefully kept out, al- g y though we were in most cases accompanied by low ebb. revenue officials. It should be noted, however, 2. This is only partly explained by unfavorable climatic conditions as in Chingleput, where that on virtually all occasions the farmers made the pressure of population on the land and no secret of their views. When in the village of the indigenous methods of cultivation are Inrungattukottai it looked as if everybody was common to all areas. A good deal of the ex- satisfied with his lot, even there, as we were planation lies in the rights and privileges of about to take our leave, a farmer upset the the different interest holders in the land. apple cart by spilling some of the real condi- 3. Absentee landlordship is rampant: in tions existing there. Considering that the land- Chingleput due to the very smallness of the holdings, in Tanjore and Malabar due to the concentration of a large acreage in a few 1. "Permanent" farm servants and often share- hands. In both cases the cultivators and the croppers. land have suffered. Land Reform Observations in Madras 163 4. Exceedingly high rents ranging from 50 to in Malabar and Chingleput the ground is 80 percent of the crops, cost of cultivation well-prepared for a similar development un- imposed upon the tenants, and lack of se- less state-initiated effective and timely eco- curity of tenure are the main features of the nomic measures will forestall it. landlord-tenant relationship. The tenants 9. The basic land reform issue in Tanjore, have no incentive (and no means) to im- Malabar, and Chingleput is that the culti- prove the land, while many landlords who vator should become the owner of the land do have the means are content with their he tills. But the more immediate issue is one returns and conditions of the land as they of improving the terms of tenancy through are. reasonable rentals, fixity of tenure, and so 5. The region had long been in urgent need forth. Little progress has been made, al- of far-reaching revisions of tenancy condi- though there is no lack of sound recom- tions, but little had been done in that direc- mendations to correct that. What is lacking tion. For this reason, tenants and agricultural is the recognition that the landless are en- workers, the latter largely harijans,2 are in- titled to a stake in the land and that failure creasingly and actively discontented with an to act is fraught with serious consequences. inflexible status quo of poverty and social What is lacking above all is a resolute lead- degradation. Tradition and authority will not ership willing to initiate and enforce long- prevent them for long from taking the law overdue changes in the land tenure system. into their hands, as they did in Tanjore, to redress grievances not otherwise assuaged. 6. The Tanjore ordinance was enacted to imn- Uniqueness of Madras prove relations among the various groups on the land, but this may not materialize. The A mere glance at the map, supplemented basic rent and security of tenure provisions with a few basic facts and figures, shows that are inadequate, while large groups of ten- Madras is an important state from many points ants and agricultural laborers are excluded of view. It forms the greater part of South from its provisions altogether. The ordinance India, stretching as it does from the borders of is an involuntary and meager concession Hyderabad and Orissa to the tip of the penin- made many years too late.. mad .ayyas oae sula. The state comprises nearly one-sixth (57 7. Chingleput has no tenancy legislation what- sa. Th.tt opie nal n-it 5 ever, ndpu iano a a scc legislation h.- million) of the total population of the country and is noted for its local cultural patterns, in- over the years has not in actual practice cluding four distinct languages, and a high benefited the cultivating tenant and landless lit farmand nd he lnd i baly ngleced. eracy rate. With nearly 41 million acres un- of the land s of te der cultivation (including current fallows) out Evasion oof a total area of 82 million acres and relatively visions is common practice. The suspensi on little industrialization, Madras is essentially an of the 1951 act, which attempted to give agricultural re tenants certain rights, has left them with no of land gin Aregards at vari- ation oladtenure arrangements and diffi- legal redress against the prevailing tenancy cult problems surrounding them, Madras can conditions. hold its own with any other state of the union. 8. In all areas visited we found no trace of Madras in many ways offers an interesting village activities by the Congress Party on study in contrasts. Primarily an agricultural behalf of the underprivileged. Tenants and state with some very rich soil but with uncer- agricultural workers do not identify the tain rainfall, Madras is normally a food im- Congress Party and the government with porter, and the standard of living of a large efforts to assist them. In their mind the Communists play that role in Tanjore, while 3. Only 12.3 percent of the population are di- rectly dependent upon nonagricultural production 2. "Children of God," in Gandhi's term, or the for a livelihood. The all-India average is 10.5 per- "untouchables." cent (1951 Census). 164 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 group of the actual cultivators is abysmally sweep of the paddy fields disappearing in the low. The state is noted for its educational prog- horizon. They closely resembled the Japanese ress and as a breeding ground for some of rice fields with hardly any fallow, all the land India's keenest leadership, yet poverty is ram- being laid our in checkerboard fashion, one pant as if these are unrelated phenomena. crop growing directly against the next; only the There are regions in Madras where the level of ridges separating the fields were too big, not education of women is one of the highest in carefully tended, and almost bare of catch crops. India, and yet in those very regions the growth Instead of the sandy plains of the Punjab with of population is most marked. Rural society is the uncertain rainfall, the ground slopped away very backward, caste and religious prejudices in almost constant greenery, the fields that had still rule supreme, and yet this center of ortho- been recently plowed presenting a moist and doxy can also be the center of rebellion; it is in rich brown loam. For the water, too, was there Madras that Communism has gained its most in the wells and reservoirs, chutes, arid spill- noted victories. Madras was the first state to ways, although at the time of our visit not in carry out zamnindari abolition, and the last to the usual abundance.4 The outstanding impres- attempt-or rather to be forced-to deal with sion was one of rich soil and rich country where the urgent problems of private ownership of farmers are relatively well off, certainly better land. Until the very recent enactment of the off than in the Punjab. The more surprising Tanjore ordinance, only one district in the therefore were the realities described below. state, Malabar, had the benefit of tenancy legis- Although nearly 40 percent of the area of lation; but that, too, is dormant now for reasons Madras is in crops, cultivated and cultivable pointed out elsewhere. In sum, nothing can be lands are so scarce in relation to the competing taken for granted in Madras, for reality and demands for their ownership, ownership and appearance there are often worlds apart. cultivation, or merely cultivation that there are large unsatisfied demands for land. This land hunger spells also acute competition among Tanjore District landowning noncultivators, landowning culti- vators, and landless laborers of the farm The rural setting community. Land ownership is of course ill- distributed: small holders who constitute 97 The real significance of the Tanjore ordinance percent of the total number of holdings have can be judged only against the background of 59 percent, and big holders who constitute 3 the conditions which induced its enactment. percent have as much as 41 percent of all wet The preamble of the ordinance itself provides a lands with assured water supply. This situation partial answer: "Whereas in the district of is fully reflected in Tanjore, where the average Tanjore the relations between landowners and size of a holding is only 2.6 acres and where their agents on the one hand and tenants and 2.4 percent of the holders with 18 acres and farm laborers on the other have become more own 36.6 percent of the land. In some strained, resulting in displacement of tenants areas of Tanjore, as for instance in the Shiyali and the dismissal of farm laborers and in agrar- Talua, the concentration of land ownership is ian crimes and disturbances: And whereas the especially pronounced. One landlord owns about situation threatens to cause deterioration in 10,000 acres of land, and not a few own thou- agricultural production . . . the Governor of sands of acres each. Official statistics on acreage Madras hereby promulgates the . . . Ordinance." under tenancy are not available, but sample But in addition to this helpful elucidation on investigations show that more than half the the pre-ordinance situation in Tanjore, we must land in Tanjore is worked by tenants and part note a number of pertinent facts underlying owner-part tenants. More startling is the large the "crimes and disturbances," facts without which no rounded-out appraisal of the measure can be made. 4. Tanjore is one of the best irrigated districts For one recently arrived from the Punjab in Madras. It produces surplus rice for shipment to it was particularly striking to see the green deficit areas of the state. Land Reform Observations in Madras 165 number of agricultural laborers on these and pancy rights. The customary wage of a pannaiyal owner-operated farms. This is supported, even is cited in the ordinance; the wage of the casual if indirectly, by official data on the occupational laborer is not very much more and is seasonal, breakdown of the farm population of Tanjore. Socially, too, they and the pannaiyals are in the Tenants with no land of their own constitute same position: they are mostly harijans, the 22 percent of the agricultural population and most depressed caste, and as such are at the agricultural laborers 35 percent. To this must very bottom of the economic and social pyra- be added a large but undetermined number of mid of the village. The shifts in the agricultural part owner-part tenants who are included in ladder are instances of the gradually weakening the category of "cultivator of land wholly or position of the marginal interests in the land, mainly owned." It may be concluded, therefore, which nevertheless have the important function that from two-thirds to three-fourths of the of raising the crops. And therein lies yet an- farm population in Tanjore either leases or other cause leading to the ordinance, for the works the land of the noncultivating owners, total lack of any stake in the land is conducive Under such conditions coupled with a land- to rural unrest and political agitation; and the lordism concerned only with the maximum pos- two have direct bearing on each other resulting sible gain, terms of tenancy and farm wages in intensification of both. cannot but be extremely onerous. Any random In the postwar period the apparently in- inquiry among the tenants of Tanjore reveals flexible order of things was beginning to give extreme poverty. Prior to the ordinance, rentals way under the rising tide of agrarian tensions. amounted to as high as 75 to 80 percent of They assumed the form of strikes, riots, setting the gross produce, not counting the cost of crops on fire, a burned-down landlord house, or cultivation for which the tenant bears most of an occasional murder of a landlord or his agent. the responsibility. It might be noted that the The collector of the Tanjore district, Mr. cost of a tenant's own labor is not taken into Palaniappan, related some of his experiences account. When asked why, then, he leases land, with pannaiyals who refused to till the fields on the answer is that he has no other alternative. the old terms, which he admitted were low, and What he doesn't say is that the only alternative, refused to admit outside labor to take their that of a pannaiyal or casual laborer on the jobs. The Mayuram Award (October 28, 1948), same or some other holding, is even worse than Mr. Palaniappan told us, accorded the tenants the lowly status of a tenant. In the end, many a 5 percent increase in the share of the crop do make the break, even when rents are lower. and higher wages to farm laborers, but the The tenant in the village of Poosivakkam of landlords responded through evictions. It might Chingleput district cultivated less than six be added that subsequent proposals for agrarian acres, but he told the Brahman landowner in reform were rejected by the government, and our presence that he is giving up the land be- it resorted instead to the maintenance of law cause all his work is for the benefit of the land- and order through police action. Little wonder owner. Discontent and unrest on the one hand that in the context of these developments the and impoverishment of the land on the other very floodgates were opened to successful Com- are the inevitable consequences. munist agitation based on the popular slogan of As noted earlier, the farm laborer in Tan- "land to the tillers." We spent all too little time jore is more plentiful than the tenant. We met in Tanjore to study the role of the Commu- both pannaiyal type and the casual daily laborer. nists in exploiting agrarian grievances for their It is obvious that the problems of the tenants own political ends, but we did have the privi- and laborer with respect to the land are closely lege of an excellent account of their activities interrelated. Many an evicted tenant told us by a politically astute police officer. He felt that, that he was displaced by a pannaiyal, who in since only the Communists had become the ac- turn is displaced by a casual laborer. This trend tive promoters of agrarian reform, farm leader- has been in evidence for some time; it is ac- ship was theirs for the asking. They didn't tively promoted by the landowners, whether big create the grievances; in the absence of any or small, and chiefly for the sake of reducing effort by the Madras government to correct the the number of would-be claimants to occu- maladjustments breaking into the open, the 166 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Communists articulated the grievances to the tenant's management of the land is not in obvious satisfaction of large groups of non- the interest of good husbandry. political farmers. This explains the successes of 3. A cultivating tenant is given security of the Communists and losses of the Congress tenure for a period of five years; if the land- Party in Madras during the general elections lord decides not to renew the lease, he must held in November 1951 through February notify the tenant to that effect a year before 1952. its expiration. 4. Pannaiyals are given the option to choose between the following: (a) compensation Tanjore on eve of the ordinance on a daily basis, when employed, of 2 Our talks with all manner of people directly marakals of paddy per day per man, 1 for or indirectly concerned with village conditions women and three-fourths for those not left us with the impression that by the spring adults (a marakal is 2 Madras measures or of 1952 Tanjore was anything but just another 6.4 pounds), or (b) the old system of I rural district carrying on in the traditional way. marakal of paddy per day for male, three- The class lines became more clearly etched, and fourths for women, plus one-seventh of the the smoldering discontent tinged with a pro- crop at harvest time. When a landlord dis- nounced red coloration was there for all to see. misses a pannaiyal, he can be reinstated if The enjoyment if not the possession of some the act is deemed unjust by the conciliation of the most fertile land of Madras state became officer, provided the pannaiyal made an ap- the subject of the bitterest controversy and peal within a week after the dismissal. struggle. The mirasdars (landlords) form a 5. The ordinance applies only to landholdings most powerful landed aristocracy in the state, above 6.5 acres of wet or 20 acres of dry conspicuous as much for their accomplishments land. in the arts and letters as for their all-or-nothing economic and political power stance-facts Tanjore ordinance and official attitude which have sharpened the discontent and ani- mosity of all the rural have-nots. The mirasdars Preparatory to our field trip we had preliminary had tried to meet the danger by evicting the talks with B. Natarajan, economic adviser to tenants, dismissing their customary farm ser- the government of Madras; S. K. Chettur, reve- vants (pannaiyals), and replacing both with nue secretary; and K. Ramuni Menon, chief casual laborers. Determined opposition was secretary to the government. In the main they natural. It was with this economic threat and all agreed that the ordinance, which received a political danger that the government of Madras great deal of publicity in and outside of Madras, finally decided to deal when it enacted the Tan- was a step in the right direction. It granted jore ordinance. the tenants and pannaiyals important conces- sions at the expense of the landlords and, in doing that, the officials felt that the ordinance Tanjore ordinance improved relations among the contending The main provisions of the ordinance are as groups in an important food-producing area follows: which has been a hotbed of successful Commu- nist activities for the past few years. One of 1. After deducting the harvesting charges, the the officials stated that the tenants received crop is to be shared on the basis of 60 per- more than they had anticipated; and it was the cent to the landlord and 40 percent to the view of all of them that landlords, tenants, and tenant. All cultivation expenses are borne by pannaiyals seem to be satisfied with the meas- the tenants. ure; and that if the effects of the Tanjore 2. A tenant evicted after December 1, 1951, ordinance live up to expectations, the same is entitled to reinstatement. A tenant can type of reform will be extended to other parts be evicted if he fails to pay rent within of the state. The subsequent paragraphs are one month of the stipulated date or when, devoted to these queries: How significant is the in the opinion of the Revenue Court, the ordinance and will it achieve its goal? Land Reform Observations in Madras 167 Tenants and the ordinance provide his own seed and must look for a loan In quest for an answer, we visited a number of elsewhere at a high interest rate, his cost would wo up. Actually, more than seed was involved; villages near Tanjore town and the town of t turned out to be seed plus an amount of rice Mannargudi, which had been a trouble spot he (or they) lack between seasons. Wne asked some time back, and questioned farmers re- the tenant what he would do if the landlord garding the prevalent practices in the area be- should insist don more than 60 percent. He re- fore and since the enactment of the ordinance plied without hesitation, in a natural and matter and what they thought of it. In one case sup- of fact way, that he would turn for help to the ported by a number of others, the tenant said Tamil Nad Kisan Sabha of Tanjore, or th e Red that he had been the continuous cultivator of 2 Flag Association organized by the Communists, acres for which he has been paying 45 kalams" with a reputed membership of 200,000. The and retaining 15 for himself, or a rental of 75 association, he was certain, would take steps to percent of the gross crop. As nearly as we could redress his grievance. determine, he was responsible for the greater The significance of the remark cannot be part of the cost of cultivation. He knew of the gainsaid, and not only because in the eyes of ordinance, but he wasn't satisfied with the the nonpolitical tenant the Communist Party 60-40 division of the crop. The old 25 percent is his sole spokesman. Government officials in share didn't furnish him enough food, and he and out of Madras and private individuals had to look for outside employment to make versed in rural matters all noted that Congress good the food deficit. Now he might have leadership in the village was not there when enough food, but it is not likely to leave him it was needed most and when it could have any surplus to invest in land improvement. assumed that role with no effort. Of course, Asked what he proposed doing if the landowner leadership implied the advocacy of measures insisted on more than 60 percent, he replied to forestall the development of an uncon- that the duty of those who passed the ordinance trollable crisis. But whether for this or other was to see that its terms are honored by all reoa s . Bu wa hether for th orcthe reasons, no one was there to fill in the vacuum parties. but the Communists. When in 1948-50 after Another tenant our of 135 kalams of paddy, an outbreak of sporadic violence the Commu- which was the yield of 5 acres of rented land, nists (and many a villager) were put in jail, paid the mirasdar 120 kalams, or 89 percent. nothing furthe Out of his 20 percent share he had to furnish r asdn . o ne in the one the cost of cultivation. He did better with re- r P spect to straw: he retained 21 bundles per acre leadership of the masses. The situation was al- and turned over 6 to the landowner. He lived lowed to drift until the Communists, freed in a house site furnished by the landowner free from jail on the eve of the elections, again of charge, but it was the business of the tenant easily stepped into the place left vacant for to take care of the field channels and, in this them. At the time of our visit nothing much instance, to apply costly ammonium sulphate at has changed in this respect; we didn't hear of the rate of 100 pounds per acre. Clearly, the any Congress group working with the farmers cultivation cash expenses besides the occasional in the villages we visited and rightly or wage to a farmhand were not negligible. He, wrongly, large groups of farmers appeared to too, stated that the ordinance was not fair to have faith in the promises of agrarian reform the tenants; asked what he would consider a held out by the Communists. This explains the reasonable rental, he replied 60 percent to the gap that exists between the government and tenant and 40 to the landowner. Cultivation ex- the majority of the farmers. Whether the ordi- penses and the post ordinance practice among nance is going to bridge it, time alone will the landlords not to extend the customary seed show; but our fears, based on what we saw and loan were cited as the reasons. Since he cannot felt and on a cold analysis of the several provi- sions of the ordinance, are that it may not. The reaction of other tenants was pretty 5. A kalam is equal to 80 pounds. much in accord with the cases cited, although 168 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 the Communists as the sole protectors of the of an acre of land for personal use and an occa- tenants in face of the landlords and the ordi- sional bonus if he is in good standing. Yet, con- nance did not come to the fore as in the cited trary to the prevailing impression, some pan- case. It is important to note, however, that to naiyals told us that they would prefer the casual date the tenants look upon the ordinance in a worker status with its greater freedom to move much more critical way than we were led to about. The fear of unemployment is, however, believe by officials in Madras and in Tanjore. a weightier consideration and he stays on if he Some of the officials propounded the view that can. In recent years, though not all of them the ordinance was giving them more than what could be evicted, evictions have taken their toll. at one time the tenants had asked for, obvi- A conciliation officer told us that since the en- ously referring to the 5 percent increase under actment of the ordinance he has been flooded the Mayuram Award, which, incidentaily, never with applications for restoration. The former materialized. The share is indeed greater, but pannaiyals will judge the ordinance primarily what may have looked substantial in 1948 on the basis of whether or not they will be re- doesn't look equally substantial in 1952. Also, stored in their rights. Our attention was called it is pertinent to mention here that some of the to the power of the landowner to upgrade or dissatisfaction stems from the clear-cut manner downgrade a pannaiyal at will. We actually with which the ordinance specifies that cultiva- listened to accounts of pannaiyals upgraded to tion costs must be borne by the tenant, the a tenant status, but such cases are rare; the sole exception being harvesting cost shared by common practice is to downgrade the tenant the landlord. Furthermore, it is not conclusive, to a pannaiyal and the pannaiyal to a casual as we think back of our field experience, that laborer. Whether the ordinance will put an end before the ordinance all tenants were in prac- to this unsettling factor in the community it is tice responsible for all the cultivation costs. In too early to say. the light of the categorical provision regarding expenses of cultivation contained in the ordi- Reactions on land ownership nance, it is to be feared that the special ar- rangements which previously were in practice Tenant, pannaiyal, or farmhand-they all between landlord and tenant, which were help- wish to own land. But it doesn't take much ful to the tenant, will be discontinued. probing to find that they totally lack savings or credit standing to enable them to acquire Farin labor and the ordinance any land, unless on the easiest possible terms, with initial cash payments virtually ruled out. The Tanjore ordinance is the first enactment Land is being bought and sold but by land- in India which recognized the need of easing owners only, and good paddy land is command- the lot of the agricultural laborers. The casual ing a price of Rsl,000 to Rsl,500 an acre. For workers are not covered by it, but it may be the time being the ordinance had no depressing assumed that better conditions for the pan- effect on land values, although the more re- naiyals may reflect favorably upon their status cent landlords are inclined to sell rather than also. The casual laborer works from four to six buy land. The Communists are beginning to months at a daily wage of nearly 2 rupees in show greater interest in land ownership in con- recent months; even the higher compensation trast to the former emphasis upon better ten- could not possibly provide them with a living ancy and farm labor terms. In the villages we for twelve months of the year. Their main con- visited, the Communist slogan is "five acres for cern at the moment of our visit was how to me and mine." The slogan is addressed now keep out the considerable influx of farmhands not so much to the tenants as to farm labor. from the adjoining district of Ramnad, where This tactic is evidently based on the theory working conditions were particularly bad. The that should the grievances of the tenants be pannaiyal works during the greater part of the redressed through the ordinance or new legis- year, about nine months, and, aside from the lative enactments, there will still be the farm- monthly wage of about 20 rupees a month, lives hands who will remain their staunch allies in the landlord-owned hut and is given a third because even the best-intentioned of govern- Land Reform Observations in Madras 169 ments must find it extremely difficult to solve the very same ordinance he is inveighing what is almost an insoluble problem, the surplus against. farm labor problem. Evaluation of the ordinance Landlords and the ordinance Judging by the reaction to the ordinance on We did not chance to meet as many mirasdars the part of the tenant, agricultural worker, and (landlords) to ascertain their points of view as landlord, it is clear that each group has some we would have liked. But we did meet a few, misgivings about it. From our point of view, and the one in Mannargudi Taluk of Tanjore the landlord should have none, because as Chief district, with whom we had a long talk, spoke Minister C. Rajagopalachari has correctly for the many. He expressed the prevailing pointed out, if the landlords did not make any sentiment of the mirasdars when he stated that concessions they would be facing the danger of the ordinance is undermining their position; losing everything. He therefore exhorted them that it denies them their livelihood by making to accept the ordinance in order to save them- land ownership uneconomic; that it is unjustifi- selves from a worse fate. We agree with the ably biased in favor of the tenants and agricul- revenue officers that the landlords' attitude will tural workers, is inopportune, and unnecessary. become clear three months from now when the The reinstatement of tenants was a particularly new harvest will be in. But it seems to us that, bitter pill: it would be tantamount "to throw- even if the landlords accept the ordinance, the ing in a man's lot again with the divorced tenants will not be content with it; its provi- wife." The evicted were "bad" tenants, unruly, sions are inadequate and will not prove to be and allied with the enemies of law and order. lasting because they do not satisfy the basic re- Above all, the landlord must have absolute quirements of the tenant and farm worker. control of the management of his land if agri- Rent reduction from between 75 and 80 cultural progress is to be attained. percent to 60 percent is indeed a welcome The landlord could not say, and especially measure, but it is our strong impression that in the presence of the revenue officials, that he the tenants will not rest content with a 40 per- would disregard the provisions of the ordi- cent share of the crop. The rumblings for re- nance; but he made no secret that he intended vision are already in the air: if it is not 60 to "take it out" on the tenant in some other percent for the tenant, then it is one-third for way. A case in point is that he and the other the landlord, one-third to the tenant, and one- mirasdars are no longer willing to make seed third to whoever bears cultivation expenses. and manure loans to tenants because: (a) the The Communists have already seized on this ordinance states that the tenant is to furnish it; and nailed it to their banner for the next round (b) with a reduction in the share, landlords of the fight. One of their leaders stated that: can't afford to make advances; and (c) the "Their (the mirasdars') calculations are simple. mood of the tenant and the continued political They expect that the peasant, given only 40 agitation make such loans risky. "But if you percent of the share and saddled with cultiva- fail to lend him the seed," we asked him in tion expenses, will not be able to pay the land- the presence of one of his tenants, "how is lord his share and will default. Then once more your tenant going to plant the crop and how they will proceed with eviction as freely as be- are you going to collect the rent?" At first the fore." The statement ends with these porten- answer was a sly smirk, but gradually the real tous words: "So a new stage in Tanjore Kisan cause was divulged. Since the tenant's chances Movement opens up. And no doubt, strength- of securing any seed or the requisite volume ened by his victory in the battle against evic- are poor, land productivity is bound to suffer. tion, the Tanjore Kisan will acquit himself as For the landlord this is a blessing in disguise, creditably as he has done in the last decade."' for if that should come to pass, he is in a posi- tion to evict the tenant under clause 10 of the 6. "Rajaji and Tanjore Tenants' Ordinance," by ordinance. He will have then preserved his Mohan Kumaramangalam in The People, September rights as he conceives them to be and through 7, 1952. 170 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 It is not important that the prediction of the it lays down that all tenants who were culti- Communists about defaulting and eviction will vating the land on December 1, 1951, shall not necessarily come true. The fact is that with have tenancy rights for five years and that those 75 to 80 percent rentals the tenants somehow who have since been evicted must be restored paid their rentals. What is important, and it in their rights. They are seemingly good meas- creates a serious issue even without any assis- ures, but upon an examination their effective- tance from the Communists, is that all expenses ness appears rather limited. To be reinstated, (other than harvesting which is shared equally a tenant must file an application within thirty by landlord and tenant) are borne by the ten- days of the enactment of the ordinance. This ants. The impression that the ordinance "sad- right is likely to go by default in many cases died" the tenant with such expenses is not since many of the tenants are illiterate and find correct. As stated by Chief Minister Rajagopala- it difficult to get from the village officers the chari, "The Ordinance only put down in words survey numbers of the land they need in order the customary practice in regard to expenses in- to file the application with the conciliation offi- curred for seeds, manure and cultivation. The cer. Second, no restoration can take place unless charge laid on him now under the Ordinance the applicant makes good any arrear of rent has not been laid on him for the first time. and reimburses the landlord or the tenant in There is no variation from the customary prac- possession of the land for any expenses incurred tice in this respect."7 We stated elsewhere that on the land since the applicant's eviction. It is the issue of who paid what expenses is not questionable if an evicted tenant is financially clear-cut; some tenants may not have shoul- capable to cover such expenses before he had dered all of the burden. Furthermore, in prac- raised a crop. The timing, if nothing else, is not tically all cases the landlords extended them helpful. Third, the ordinance doesn't apply to cultivation credit. The ordinance legalized what tenants evicted prior to December 1, 1951. is supposedly a custom with no exceptions, and, This is a significant omission, for most of the indirectly, it created a mood among landlords evictions had taken place in 1949-50, the of not advancing credit any longer. years of active disturbance in Tanjore. Assuming that this is the custom, a land re- The five-year security period entitles the form intended for the benefit of the tenants tenant to limited tenancy rights. Every landlord need not necessarily protect what is customary, can take back his land after five years. And he especially when the custom is bad. The custom can take it back within the five years if the plus the high, preordinance rentals left most land is not cultivated well, perhaps because of tenants with barely anything; the custom with the difficulty of securing seed and manure or reduced rentals will leave him a little some- other unavoidable causes. This is a severe limi- thing if credit is not denied him. One of the tation on security of tenure; the threat of most responsible revenue officials and a sup- eventual eviction is a weapon of coercion in porter of the ordinance told us that with the the hands of unfriendly landlords, a category ordinance in force a tenant can count on a net into which most of the landlords might fall. share of the crop of about 10 percent. It would The rent reduction provision can be gravely be idle for the government to expect any in- compromnised because it cannot be enforced crease in production when the tenant's share is without real bargaining power, and the tenant much smaller than the landlord's and the re- doesn't get it tinder the ordinance. sponsibility for cultivation also rests on him. It The pannaiyals dismissed prior to March 1, gives the Communists a rare chance to keep 1952, have no redress under the ordinance. up the agitation for a further reduction in rent Those dismissed between March 1 and the or sharing of cultivation expenses or both. enactment of the ordinance may apply for rein- The ordinance attempts to deal with the evil statement, while those dismissed after the of eviction at the whim of the landlord and to promulgation of the ordinance are given one give the tenants security of tenure. To that end, week within which to apply for reinstatement. The time limitation is much too short to do the pannaiyal much good. Moreover, the legal pro- 7. Indian Express, September 9, 1952. cedure of reinstatement as outlined in clauses Land Reform Observations in Madras 171 2, 3, and 4 of section 12 is too complicated known as the Subramanian Committee. Those and involved to assure speedy settlement of the recommendations, which were never applied, case, and the practical validity of the reinstate- were by no means bold or comprehensive; but ment provision may be questioned. Better re- at least they concerned themselves, even though sults could be achieved if a problem of this from our point of view largely in a negative kind were resolved by an elective or appointive way, with such important issues as peasant committee made up of the representative proprietorship, acquisition of land beyond a groups of villagers. certain limit, ceilings on personal cultivation, With respect to pannaiyal wages, the ordi- and restrictions on sales of land to nonculti- nance gives him the choice of the old or the vators. In addition, the report recommended new schedule. If he accepts the new it means the sharing of rentals on the basis of 40 to 45 more wages, but he will get paid only for the percent (depending upon the type of land) to days he works and he is not entitled to any the landlord and 55 to 60 percent to the tenant. bonus, which, under the old system, meant one- The ordinance doesn't go even that far. For seventh of the crops of 6.6 acres (only) if these and other reasons, the ordinance betrays the pannaiyal harvested the crop. This was an a fear to stand still, a fear induced by the events incentive measure to insure the pannaiyal's in- of the past few years, at the same time betray- terest in raising a better crop. It is of some ing an even greater fear to move ahead. Hence significance that the landlords accepted this its failure to deal drastically with the causes provision with practically no protest. The pan- which made for the disturbed conditions in naiyal, on the other hand, doesn't quite know Tanjore. how it will all work out; it will take at least Nevertheless, the ordinance served its pur- a season or two to determine the effect of the pose. It was a reminder to the landlords that measure. The ordinance makes no attempt to the status quo cannot be maintained and that consider the casual labor problem. more substantial concessions from the landlords Clause b of section 3 provides that wet hold- are perhaps in the offing. While the landlords ings of 6.6 acres or less or dry land of 20 acres oppose the very conservative provisions of the or less are not subject to the provisions of the ordinance, actually it is the shape of things to ordinance. The average holding in the Madras come that troubles them more than what they state is 2.6 acres of wet land in wet districts are called upon to grant now. The desire to sell and 6.5 acres of dry land in dry districts. The out their holdings, which is quite prevalent number of titleholders made up of 10 acres of among landlords, is an expression of that fear. wet land and 15 to 20 acres of dry land are The ordinance whetted the unassuaged appetite about 6.5 million, or roughly three-quarters of of the tenants and farm workers for terms the existing number of proprietors.' Roughly more nearly in accord with their desires and calculated, this means that approximately half needs, and this must be counted among the of the proprietors escape the jurisdiction of the welcome developments. ordinance. In view of the extreme mildness of the ordinance, it is difficult to understand why it has allowed the small landlords who consti- Chingleput District tute the bulk to continue the tenure practices it is in the process of denying the bigger land- General and tenure conditions lords. The reputation of the small landlord as a rack renter is notoriously bad. Their exemp- Chingleput and Tanjore districts differ greatly tion, therefore, doesn't seem reasonable or justi- in many respects. Tanjore is a breadbasket of fiable. Madras by virtue of the available water supply The ordinance doesn't compare well with and predominance of paddy culture. Chingle- the main recommendations of the Land Reve- put, on the other hand, is a deficit food area, nue Reforms Committee of Madras of 1950, being a chronic sufferer from lack of water. This has left its mark upon the types of culture, tenure conditions, and living standards. 8. Subramanian Committee Report, 1951. Our observations relate to Sriperumbudur 172 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Taluk, a section of the district which has been as in the previous village. Two tenants, when drought ridden for a number of years. There questioned, said that they have been cultivating are no river or spring channels in this taluk the same land for four and eight years respec- except the Kambakal, irrigating some of the tively, although evictions are common. They villages in the western part. In the few places complained about this rent arrangement since with an adequate water supply, the wet land it compelled them to pay the landlord a fixed yields two crops. Successive failure of rains had amount of grain regardless of the yield. In an dried up most of the "eries" (storage tanks) area of recurring monsoon failures, this rent when we visited the area. Varadarajapuram is system is indeed a burden hard to shoulder. a small village of some 300 cultivated acres, the The permanent farm servants get only Rsl2 bulk of it owned by small noncultivating per month with one meal a day. The harijans owners. accounted for nearly a third of the village popu- The tenants are all poor tenants-at-will, en- lation. joying little security. The lands are taken either The third village, Pusivakkam, had about on waram or guthagai basis. Under waram, 500 acres under cultivation. There were 200 generally the landlord and the customary rent families in the village, half of whom were is half of the gross produce. In practice, the harijan families. Out of 500 acres, 100 acres landlord's share is larger. The tenant is entitled were cultivated by the landowners themselves to the straw in most cases. Generally, the terms and the rest by tenants. Where the tenant has of tenure depend upon the fertility of the land to bail water, he takes two-thirds of the pro- and the availability of water. Where water has duce. Generally, waram tenure is on half-and- to be lifted or is scarce, the tenant sometimes half basis. But on being closely questioned, it gets two-thirds and the landlord one-third of developed that the landlord deducts 12.5 per- the crop. Under guthagai, the tenant makes a cent of the produce in the first instance and fixed grain payment, which varies from village only the balance is divided half and half. The to village. Under both systems all cultivation landlord's share, therefore, is closer to 60 than expenses are borne by the tenants. Guthagai is 50 percent. For this reason the tenants would the prevalent system in this village. The land- consider half-and-half division just if strictly lords are paid 2 jodus or 4 measures per unit adhered to and if the landlord also contributed of first-class wet land and 2.5 measures per half the cost of manure. unit of dry lands. Half of the rental is paid for the second crop on the same land. Where permanent farm laborers are employed, they are paid Rs20 per month plus one meal a day, Agricultural efficiency is at a low ebb in the one bag of paddy for each crop, and the rem- areas visited. Small landowners owning less than nant left on the threshing floor after the grain 5 acres predominate. Water supply is uncertain, is removed; casual laborers are paid one rupee and with pumping sets to irrigate about 10 for males and 12 annas for female labor and acres costing more than Rsl800, the land is one meal at harvesttime. Generally, casual ill-supplied with the prime requisite of culti- laborers work only about three months in the vation. year. Of the 150 families in the village, 100 Between 30 and 50 percent of the land- are harijan families segregated from caste fami- holders are absentee landlords. In some cases lies and eking out a miserable existence. this percentage is said to go beyond 70 percent. The next village was Irungattukottai, by far They are small holders and they seem to be the biggest, with a cultivated area of 1,200 forced out of the village mostly because of the acres. Here, too, most of the land belonged to inability of agriculture to support them. This a large number of noncultivating farmers. leads us to the conclusion that absenteeism may Generally, lands are rented out on Guthagai result from the possession of too little as well and the share of the landlord is about the same as too much land. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that even though tenure conditions are bad, there is less 9. One rupee equals U.S. 21 cents. evidence of that purposeful harsh exploitation Land Reform Observations in Madras 173 of one class by the other so prevalent in Tanjore tural community depends to a considerable and Malabar. Both appear to be the victims of degree upon the terms under which the culti- a situation which affords few employment op- vating tenants and agricultural workers till the portunities and which has grown from bad to landowners' land. But in many other respects, worse by the niggardliness of weather over including the very special type of tenure ar- long periods. The poor condition of the tenant rangements, Malabar is as different from Tan- is exceeded only by that of the large class of Jore and Chingleput as the last two differ from harijans, who are mostly landless laborers. each other. Malabar is a part of the state where There is much to share in Tanjore, there is the monsoon almost never fails and, although little to share here. This emphasizes the fact a deficit food area, famine is unknown. The that under such circumstances the land cannot soil is naturally fertile, and no one who travels support both landlord and tenant, and steps through Palghat Gap can fail to be struck by should be taken to combine ownership with the rich paddy fields, luxuriant gardens, and cultivation, if only in order that the people the pleasant view of the seldom-to-be-seen in who work the land get a living out of it. India scattered homesteads in the midst of In the Chingleput district the landlord- farmers' gardens and farms. Paddy culture pre- tenant strife, which came into the open in dominates, but the striking feature of Malabar Tanjore, is not in evidence, but the ingredients is the large acreage under cash crops, such as for a similar development are there. We found coconuts, pepper, jack, areca nuts, and a great no tenant satisfied with his share. The growing variety of other fruit crops, which is a source of awareness of the need of getting a larger share higher income than paddy or other cereals. Add is evident from the demand that the landlords to this a somewhat better-than-average sanita- should bear half of the expenses of manuring. tion, health conditions, and native intelligence He will, of course, not get it unless the land- and educational advancement, and the rating lords are compelled to make the concession. As of Malabar as one of the more progressive yet the demand for even this one measure of places in India is understandable. And yet, it relief is not very strident, but the tenant who takes little searching to find that the actual had to relinquish part of the acreage because cultivator of the soil is not better off economi- it yielded him nothing is a symbol of a situa- cally than is his opposite number in Tanjore or tion which might deteriorate fast. The demands in Chingleput. will gather momentum so long as the tenants In the course of our visit we were being told are responsible for the stated shares and all by officials and landlords that part of the ex- costs of cultivation, while the contribution of planation of the realities which belie the ap- the landlords-small owners though they are- pearance of prosperity lies in the pressure of is that of titleholders. But serious as the tenant population in the land. This is undeniably so. problem is, an even worse one is the large In all of south India, Malabar district with a segregated class of harijans subjected to un- density of 640 people per square mile is second relieved economic and social hardship. Both only to that of Tanjore. The average amount problems can be ignored only at the peril of the of cultivated land per person is three-fifths of established government. an acre. This is in itself a welfare-limiting factor. Another factor called to our attention is the low productivity of the land. There is a saying in Malabar that "the yield is on the Malabar plough." But whether meant in a literal or figurative sense, the plough doesn't yield much General and tenure conditions notwithstanding good soil and an adequate water supply. The commonly suggested explana- Our trip to Malabar helped to underscore once tions are the cultivator's indolence; being cer- more the diverse and common features one tain of a crop, he doesn't exert himself; he finds within the confines of Madras state. The doesn't plow deeply, doesn't weed, neglects to one thing common to Malabar, Tanjore, and repair water courses, manures little or not at all, Chingleput is that the welfare of the agricul- and, generally speaking, readily accepts the idea 174 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 that what was good for his forefathers is good bar. Just prior to our visit, the crop had been enough for him. harvested and the rent collected. Under the These and other handy explanations have Malabar Tenancy Act of 1929 the tenant is some validity, but only when it is added that entitled to the customary one-third of the net higher yields call for all manner of improve- produce, but the practice reveals wholesale vio- ments, which in turn call for capital invest- lation of the custom and the act. The tenants ment; and capital, regardless how small the couldn't tell us the exact percentage of the amount, the cultivator of Malabar hasn't got. crop paid to the landowner, but they all knew The landowners do have it, but as an agricul- how it was shared. One tenant told that he paid tural official noted, the capital they spend "will 15 paras (a local measure) out of a total yield be limited to the strict requirements to ensure of 20, or 75 percent; another paid 16 paras their usual income from the land.""o He further out of approximately the same yield, or 80 per- stated that "There is no incentive to spend cent; and the same was true of a third tenant, more, because, the surplus yield is not to be a woman renting a piece of land, which, in- his exclusively but has to be shared with others. cidentally, appeared to us to be no bigger than Unless the man who spends money gets the a fourth of an acre. They were all responsible full benefit of the expenditure, he has no in- for all the cost of cultivation. We were in- centive to do so." formed by the landlord of these holdings, who The correctness of the quoted observation happened to come by in a shiny Ford as we was all too apparent when we inquired into were interrogating the tenants, that the ex- tenancy conditions prevailing in the Palghat penses amounted to little more than their labor section of Malabar. With little time at our dis- since the land received very little manuring. posal we stopped at only two villages, discussing The tenants didn't contradict his statement, matters with farmers, landowners, and revenue and the landlord didn't contradict theirs, when officers. We saw, however, enough to convince in his presence, we asked them to state once us that reforms cannot long be withheld both again the terms of tenure. Their net couldn't in the interests of land improvement and higher have been more than 10 percent of the crops. productivity as well as that of social peace and The tenants were very hazy about the act, and stability. An accepted view in certain circles of it would not have helped them much even if Malabar is that its tenure system represents a they were familiar with its provisions. The combination of land, capital, and labor in which landlord would not grant him one-third unless cooperation could be productive of good re- the tenant appealed to the Civil Court. This sults. But in the course of our trip we did not involves expenditure and delay plus the risk of see any evidence of the consummation of such displeasing the landlord and eviction. Whatever a happy development, the reason, it was apparent that the tenants had The land of Malabar is split into minute little to show for their pains. In Malabar as in holdings, but its ownership is reported to be other districts their only alternative was the in the hands of a small number of persons, a uncertainty of a casual laborer, and so they smaller number in fact than in any other dis- continued as tenants. trict of the state. Malabar, and especially South The landlord was rather uneasy about the Malabar where we traveled, is commonly re- airing his stewardship of the land was getting ferred to as the land monopoly region; and the in the presence of a foreigner; but, having col- great majority of the farm population culti- lected himself, he attacked the tenants on the vates somebody else's land. The results of indi- ground that they did not improve the land and, vidual interviews with a number of tenants failing that, theirs must be a small share. "But working in the field are representative of Mala- how could they spend money raising higher yields," we asked him, "the rental being so high?" In reply he shrugged his broad shoul- 10. "Report of the Special Offier fot the In- ders-he happened to be at least six feet two vestigation of Land Tenures on the Recommendations inches tall and nearly half that in the waist- of the Malabar Tenancy Committee," May 1947, line-and remarked that this had been the p. 31. customary practice and that the tenants till now Land Reform Observations in Madras 175 had not expressed any dissatisfaction. He him- step was to divide the land among his three self was not investing money in land improve- sons. He thereby insured himself against would- ments. He was a good landlord, he continued, be occupancy rights and/or ceilings on indi- and in proof thereof he pointed to a tenant say- vidual holdings. He merely behaved like an ing that on the occasion when his rent was in "economic" man. In the context of Malabar arrears he didn't evict him. It developed then tenure conditions, he and his colleague may be that the tenants had no security of tenure and rated as "good" landlords. But they are the ex- that the landlord could change them at will, ceptions. The "80 percenter" with no interest even though the act conferred upon them in the land and in the tillers is the rule. The qualified fixity of tenure through the right of long history of the land tenure legislation in demanding a renewal of their leases. Malabar is revealing in this connection. Malabar kanamdars Tenure legislation and effects Upon further questioning, it appeared that the As mentioned earlier, the tenure system in landlord was not the real owner of the land. Malabar is more complicated than in the rest He was a kanamdar, or a holder of land from of the state because of the existence of three the original owner, the janmi, in return for distinct rightholders in the land: The janmi, certain compensations about which more will the kanamdar, and the verampartamdar. Janmi be said in a subsequent paragraph. Suffice it is the landlord, and janmam denotes proprietor- to say here that this intermediary is the preva- ship. Under the janmi is the kanamdar who lent type of landholder which distinguishes the holds land by advancing a loan to the janmi for Malabar system of tenure from that of Tanjore a specified period, usually extending to twelve and Chingleput. He, rather than the legal years. The kanamdar pays rent to the janmi owner, is the rack renter, exploiting both ten- after deducting the land revenue and the in- ant and original owner. The kanamdar in ques- terest on the money advanced. When the lease tion told us that although he pays the janmi is renewed, the kanamdar must pay the janmi only Rs120 a year for an unspecified acreage a renewal fee, mainly because the rent he pays in the area we visited, the rentals he receives is generally small, and is in some cases a nomi- from the same land range from Rs2,000 and up. nal sum. The fee in itself is considered a portion Not all kanamdars of Malabar are cut from of the profits, sometimes a large portion, which the same cloth. We had met two who were less accrue to the kanamdar. The right of eviction greedy and more foresighted. One of them built which the janmi enjoyed in the past was the a spacious and modern-looking farmhouse for weapon of compelling a kanamdar to accept the tenant, drained leveled and reclaimed land, what was demanded of him. The kanamdar dug channels from small reservoirs to insure seldom cultivates the land himself; he leases it double cropping, and constructed a modern well to the verampattamdar or cultivating tenant on in his garden. According to the landlord, he terms already described. shared with the tenant the crop on a fifty-fifty This system with its numerous variations basis. We were not in a position to find out has been a source of antagonisms among the all the financial ramifications between landlord three parties leading to outbreaks first recorded and tenant, but the former was indeed con- in 1836 and culminating in South Malabar in cerned with land improvement. Another land- open rebellions in the 1920s. The principal lord of the same category expressed the view cause was frequent evictions of kanamdars by that it was high time for a rent reduction in janmis and of cultivating tenants by kanamdars. Malabar. Moreover, he believed that the entire This in turn must be attributed to rise in popu- land tenure system of Malabar will be sub- lation and competition for the land and the jected to a very drastic revision. Acting upon consequent disintegration of such basic, old- that conviction, he has already met that eventu- established tenure terms such as a tenant's share ality in two ways: his tenants continue to work of one-third of the net output, reasonable re- on his land as of old, but in the land register newal fees, reasonable fixity of leaseholds, and book he appears as a self-cultivator; the second compensation for land improvement. The prin- 176 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 cipal victims, however, were and are to this day financially and politically strong to enforce the cultivating tenant and the agricultural their new rights, and in the years following laborer. they rather than the janmis became the sym- The effort to cure uncertainty of tenure with bol of typical landlordism in Malabar. And yet, its concomitants of sky-high rentals and reck- totally unconcerned as they are about the cir- less evictions dates back to 1887 when the cumstances in which their own tenants live and right to claim compensation for improvements work, the successful struggle of the kanamdars was conceded to the kanamdars and the culti- against the janimis was a step in the right di- vating farmers by the Tenants Improvements rection. It meant that the center of gravity of Compensation Act. A somewhat similar piece land interests has finally shifted from the higher of legislation was promulgated in 1900, but to the lower group of landholders. Therein lay with equally ineffective results, the reason being the promise that eventually it might shift from that what the "inferior" interests in the land the kanamdars to the cultivating tenants and wanted was not so much compensation on quit- agricultural workers. ting the cultivated land, which, incidentally, To date, that promise remains unfulfilled. was hardly ever granted in full, but a right to The enactment of the 1951 Malabar Tenancy continue to cultivate the same land on payment Act, currently not in operation, might have of a reasonable rental. Little had changed by improved the condition of the cultivating ten- 1915, although in that year the revenue col- ant, although the kanamdars would have bene- lector of Malabar, Sir Charles Innes, held that fited most because the act abolished the system there was a case for legislation on the following of renewals and renewal fee. For the kanamdar grounds: this meant low or nominal rental and fixity of 1. The prevalence of rack-renting and tenure subject to resumption of the land by the a ajanmi in case of bona fide self-cultivation. The rent was fixed at one-half of the net produce, 2. Inadequacy of compensation paid for and the kanamdar is denied the right to de- the improvements. mand of the tenant any advance of rent or se- 3. Insecurity of tenure. 4. Levy of exorbitant renewal fees. curity for its due payment. The tenant was 5. The social tyranny and miscellaneous given qualified fixity of tenure-that is, he exactingofth . could be evicted only if the kanamdar could exTn osthe Janmbis. prove that he wished the land back for self- 6The ownership of land being a mo- cliain nopoly of a small landed aristocracy who do theatw eda not ultvat andwhorarly cntrbut to The act was subject to a spirited attack by nor cultivteands wo relynds. call parties concerned, the janmis on the ground that the abolition of the renewal fee and re- However, this view was not shared by newals in general violates the fundamental others who maintained that there were no po- right to the holding and enjoyment of prop- litical or economic reasons for undertaking erty guaranteed by articles 19 and 31 of the legislation. In the years following they became constitution. The kanamdars attacked the rent all too compelling, and the Malabar Tenancy reduction provision for obvious reasons, while Act of 1929 was finally enacted. the tenants opposed the act chiefly because The principal beneficiary of the act was the from their point of view the security of tenure kanamdar. it effectively curtailed the janmi's provisions were not sufficiently binding on the right of eviction and fixed a maximum fee for landlords to prevent illegal evictions. The agri- lease renewal, which was much below that paid cultural workers were not involved in the con- in the past. At the same time, the act in no troversy; as in the past, the act didn't concern way weakened the superior position of the itself with their status. In view of the three- kanamdar over the cultivating tenant. "Quali- corner criticism of the act, it has been sus- fled" fixity of tenure to restrict evictions by the pended altogether and a new one is under con- kanamdar and "fair" rents for the tenants men- sideration. Whether the 1951 act would have tioned in the act proved to be paper provisions. resulted in a new chapter in the landlord-tenant The kanamdars, unlike their own tenants, were relations is anybody's guess; the degree of en- Land Reform Observations in Madras 177 forcement is the great unknown, and lack of that would place the peasant 'in the center of enforcement in the past nullified the few well- the piece," as Nehru so aptly put it. This pre- intentioned measures. But for the time being supposes the resurrection of the old Congress and for all practical purposes, the tenants and slogan of "Land to the tillers." While this agricultural workers carry on as of old under doesn't mean that all land must be turned to highly disadvantageous terms. the tenants forthwith, it does mean that the various measures must be designed with a view of achieving that goal. Third and most impor- tant is that whatever the scope of the reform, its letter and spirit must be actively pursued A New Approach and enforced. This is seemingly a truism hardly worth reiterating, but the inescapable fact is Such, in the main, are landlord-tenant relations that the progress of land reform in certain parts in Malabar, Tanjore, and in Chingleput dis- of the country is gravely impeded by the enor- tricts, the attempts to improve them, and the mous gap between the aim of the legislation attitude of the principal parties toward them. and performance. The measures do not go far enough to meet It is not necessary to spell out the details of the problems in the parts of the state con- a sound agrarian reform based on the above sidered in this report. It is reasonable to infer principles. The critical review of the ordinance that the rest of the state is not free from the implies, at least in part, what it should have same type of problems. It may be inferred also been or what the forthcoming legislation should that the overwhelming majority of the tenants be. More important is the fact that the rich and agricultural workers of Madras are no literature on agrarian reform in India doesn't longer satisfied with the existing state of affairs. suffer for a lack of sound recommendations. It Until very recently their conservatism, inertia, abounds in them and the principal ones may and ingrained feudal subservience to the land- be easily culled: occupancy rights; rent reduc- lord kept the pot from boiling over. Now the tion; rent not to exceed one-third of the crop forces that held them within well-defined or less, with cost of cultivation shared by land- bounds are breaking down under rising agrar- lord and tenant; grounds for eviction carefully ian discontent. Some of them are at last in ino- circumscribed; full compensation for land im- tion and others are bound to follow. provement; ceilings on existing holdings; land It may be anticipated that before long the purchasing at fair prices and reasonable terms Tanjore ordinance will be revised, and the of repayment; drastic limitation of absentee Malabar Tenancy Act of 1951 will have to be ownership; prohibition of land acquisition by revitalized and put in operation. But before the noncultivators; and curtailment of resumption Madras government does that, it might con- of land for self-cultivation. More recently, the sider a number of propositions so far over- Planning Commission has set forth comprehen- looked. To begin with, there must be the sive recommendations in its latest report which, realization that Tanjore district is not a special if adopted by the state governments, would go case. Only the Communists spotlighted it, and a long way toward the rehabilitation of the that made Tanjore special. Malabar district is tillers of the land and of the rural economy. equally bad, and its kanamdar system is an ele- To repeat, the reform roadblocks are not mrent of further exploitation of the tenant. Con- due to either ignorance of the existing state of ditions in Chingleput district are perhaps not affairs in the countryside or absence of expert as critical, but they have other attributes which advice on how to correct it. They lie rather in could stand doctoring. In sum, it is Madras the hesitancy of the authorities to face the issue state rather than this or that district which is that quick action is necessary, a situation so in need of overhauling of the conditions relat- well illustrated in Tanjore. What the peasants ing to man and the land he cultivates. Second want most is land ownership, but they would is the recognition that the time of hasty patch- settle for much less, provided, however, other work typified by the ordinance has long past. reform measures such as rent reduction, occu- The content of the legislation must be such pancy rights, and farm wages, for example, are 178 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 not half measures merely to meet Communist to keep in mind that even substantial changes penetration into the countryside but carry last- initiated by an intelligent government leader- ing meaning in terms of hopes and aspirations ship will be less disrupting and infinitely more of the cultivating farmers and agricultural stabilizing than if carried out from below, by workers. The landlords of Madras, judging by the farmers themselves, by taking the law into their attitude in Tanjore and Malabar, are by their own hands. and large dedicated to the proposition of main- Finally, when the desirable legislation is en- taining their rights through thick and thin, and acted and enforced, the millenium will not further opposition to reform must be antici- have arrived in rural Madras. There simply is pated. The remedy for that is determined and not enough land to satisfy the cultivating owner enlightened government leadership. Much can proprietors, tenants, and agricultural workers be done with it and nothing without it. There whose numbers are rising year by year. The is no substitute for that kind of leadership if the most egalitarian distribution of land or the psychological climate of rural Madras is to fairest of tenure terms cannot negate the ill undergo a radical improvement and if in the effects of the multitude of competitors for a minds of the peasants the government is to be- cultivated area which is almost stationary and come identified with their welfare, an acreage of relatively low productivity. Only To deal with agrarian reform in Madras (as by industrialization and the consequent siphon- elsewhere) is to be confronted with the un- ing off of some agricultural labor, coupled with pleasant fact of change, the one unalterable con- a sharp rise in agricultural productivity, can a stant in human affairs. With but one exception, real dent be made in the vicious circle of more zamindari abolition, rural Madras has not people-less land and growing poverty. Such changed from time immemorial because the developments, especially the first one, still re- people who "count" believe that things are very main in the future. This, however, doesn't in any well as they are and that there is no need to be way argue against the validity of reform meas- . ures within the existing village condition. The ovrl zaostchnetigarudTis issue is not of solving the rural problem, but of attitude is understandable, but it cannot be sup- iaivs capablesofwpo the wo .palliatives capable of wiping out the worst ported any longer in the face of the undisputed features of a cake of custom which condemns fact that the peasants are actively unwilling to the farmers to a below-subsistence level of ex- accept the "normal" place to which they are istence. The immediate problem is not one of a relegated by custom and tradition. For this rea- whole loaf or nothing; a good chunk of the son it would be worse than folly if in the year same can go a long way if given in time. When 1952 the privileges of a minority group were that is brought about, the very size of the loaf to continue to stand in the way of economically will be increased to the greater satisfaction of and politically necessary changes. And it is well all concerned. 20. Land Reform Observations in Kashmir In the third of his 1952 India papers, Ladejinsky examines the rare phenomenon of a radical and successfully implemented land reform in India-that in Kashmir under Sheikh Abdullah. It has a special interest if only on that account. The report, itself undated, was based on a field trip made in October 1952. It was trans- mitted to the U.S. Department of State as Dispatch 1276, dated November 25, 1952. Land Reform Observations in Kashmir 179 IT WAS IN KASHMIR THAT this observer wit- Rsl million, and a few thousand acres of land nessed a far-reaching land reform program in owned by them outright. By the same token India. Its character will be described and ana- the state revenue increased, although not by lyzed in subsequent paragraphs, but it may be this amount. From the point of view of the gov- stated here that it differs from all other land ernment and of the cultivating farmers, the reforms of India in three respects: content, en- intangible gains are greater because in prac- forcement, and government's role in the pro- tice a jagirdar ran his land domain as it were a gram. Whereas virtually all land reforms in state within a state. He was an authentic feudal India lay stress on the elimination of the lord, with rights over the tillers far exceeding zamindari tenure system with compensation or the revenue collecting exercised by the former on rent reduction and security of tenure, the zamindari in India, and almost not accountable Kashmir reform calls also for the distribution to the state for his actions. In the words of one of land among the tenants without compensa- of the principal land reform promoters in tion to the erstwhile proprietors; whereas land Kashmir, Revenue Minister M. M. A. Beg, this reform enforcement in most states of India is order of things "had reduced thousands of not too effective, in Kashmir enforcement is peasants to tongueless 'hewers of wood and unmistakably vigorous; finally, whereas in other drawers of water'." A government whose lead- states one seldom encounters among the farmers ers have repeatedly stated that "building a a close identification of the government with Socialist order is our objective" could not but their needs, in Kashmir the preponderant ma- begin with the elimination of the very special jority of them knows that the government and kind of intermediary endowed with all manner more specifically Sheikh Abdullah is the source of rights and few obligations either to the of the reform and of the benefits they are de- cultivator or the state. In doing that, the gov- riving from it. ernment hoped to give currency to the idea that The land reform legislation of Kashmir the cultivator and the land must be linked may be divided into three phases. The first one closer to each other. occurred in April 1948 when the government That the elimination of the jagirdars and abolished the jagirs, muafis, and inukarraries. similar rightholders in land was only the first The first two stand for privileges of collecting step in a new land tenure policy became evi- revenue in kind or cash from lands given to dent in October 1948 when the government certain individuals by a ruler or the state in initiated the second land reform phase by compensation for services, real or fancied, ren- amending the State Tenancy Act of 1924. Like dered by them. Some of these privileges were most states in India, the farm holdings of Kash- temporary while others were held in per- mir are small (frequently only 1 to 2.5 acres), petuity. Whether short- or long-lived, all the fragmented to a point perhaps unequalled in benefits from the assigned lands went to the India, and many farmers work the land as ten- holder of the jagir (the jagirdar) or of the ants. The total cultivated area of Jammu and muafi (the muafidar) and none to the state. Not Kashmir (excluding Pakistan-held territory) only did they pay no revenue (land tax) on is estimated at about 2.2 million acres, of these freeholds, but none was paid for the lands which the tenanted acreage is roughly one-third they owned. Along with abolition of these two of the total. This land is in the hands of 120,000 types of rights went those of mukarraridar, a noncultivating owners, but among them about class who received from the state treasury fixed 500 own as much as 300 acres each, and less cash grants every six months. than 2,000 own as much as 75 acres. These The tangible and intangible consequences of landlords are substantial only in relation to the this enactment are quite apparent. As to the predominant small cultivator. The number of first, the jagirdars (396) and mukkararidars landless tenants is estimated at 300,000. To (2,347) have disappeared from the rural scene. this must be added an estimated 250,000 part This observer has met some in Srinagar, the owners-part tenants who also cultivated part summer capital of Kashmir, in a state of deep of the tenanted land. Only a small part of the perturbance over their lost privileges, partly tenants enjoyed occupancy rights (protected expressed in revenues estimated at more than tenants); the great majority were tenants-at- 180 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 will-that is, they could be evicted at the land- mountains have scratched only nine inches of lord's pleasure. Rentals compared well with top soil and eked out a bare existence. Now other states of India; they ranged from 50 to the time has come when they must dig into the 60 percent of the gross crop, the tenants bear- bowels of the earth and yoke the techniques of ing most of the cost of cultivation. modern science to task of getting for themselves The principal provisions of the Amended a bigger and better morsel of daily bread." Tenancy Act of 1924 to strengthen the position To bring this about, Sheikh Abdullah felt of the tenants are as follows: that the following must be accomplished: 1. "Abolition of landlordism-because such a step 1. Rentals for wet land, icluding those grow- would be the pivot of all progress. . . . Land to ing wheat, corn, sugarcane, and linseed, are the tiller-because after the abolition of the fixed at one-fourth of the gross crop. Rentals landlord class it will be possible for the first for dry land are fixed at one-third of the time to satisfy the land hunger of the landless crop. These rent reductions apply to ten- paat n nueefcetwrigo h anted land on holdings exceeding 12.5 acres. peasant, and insure efficient working of the land. Rents on holdings of 12.5 and less are fixed This is the background which led the gov- at half the crop. Under no condition can ernmenthe by Shei h la t po- the fixed rentals be enhanced. eminent headed by Sheikh Abdullah to promul- 2. Recognizing that no rent reduction can be gate the Abolition of the Big Landed Estates enforced unless the tenant has real bargain- Act of July 13, 1950. The outstanding provi- ing power, which is security of tenure, the sions of the act are: act provides that in the province of Kashmir 1. No landlord can hold more than 182 kanals and the frontier districts of Ladakh and (22.5 acres) of cultivated land. The owner- Gilgit a tenant shall have permanent occu- ship of the excess is to be given to the ten- pancy rights on 21/s acres of wvet land and ants. No cultivator can, with the land so 41s acres of dry land; in the Jammu prov- obtained and that which he may own, possess ince the respective figures are 21s and 8/ S mnore than 20 acres. The act does not apply acres. This is roughly the maximum acreage to orchards (which are important in the cultivated by a tenant. A landlord can still t appeal to the court for the eviction of a agricultural economy of Kashmir), pasture, aealto te cortn fordithen, ect a and forest lands. The landlord was given tenant under certain conditions, but, as will the right to select any 22.5 acres which be pointed out elsewhere, unwarranted eject- suited him best. To prevent evasion of this ments have come to an end, and the tenants of Kashmir have finally achieved security provision, the act decreed that the transfers of tenure. of land effected by the landlords after April 3. The act provides also for reinstatement of 13, 1947 subject to the provisions of this tenants evicted after April 1947 and pro- act are invalid. hibits the enforcement of a court eviction With the excess land go all rights in trees, order once the tenant has acquired protected wells, tanks, ponds, and water channels free orders. ofrom all encumbrances; and the interest of the new owner in such land is not liable to Just as the elimination of the jagirdars was a attachment or sale in execution of any court prelude to the restriction of the landlords' decree. Having taken over the land, the rights in relation to the tenant, in the same man- cultivator pays to the state the land revenue net the latter was another step leading to land and other customary dues. distribution among the tenants. This was not a 3. On the all-important question of compensa- new idea conceived by the government since tion, the act provided that the national as- its accession to power in November 1947. It sembly of the state should resolve it at a goes back to 1944 when Sheikh Abdullah, then future date. At the outset, the government the president of the All Jammu and Kashmir agreed to pay the following annuities for National Conference, in presenting the pro- the expropriated land: three-fourths of the gram of the "New Kashmir," made this state- land revenue during the first year; two-thirds ment: "The peasant sons of the valleys and the during the second year; and one-half during Land Reform Observations in Kashmir 181 the third and subsequent years. It was further most agreeable to this rough-and-ready method laid down, however, that under no condition of "feeling the pulse" of the farmers. And we can the annuities exceed Rs3,000, nor will don't believe that he permitted his bias in any annuity be payable for land which was favor of the reform to creep into the English at one time in the category of village com- rendered from the Kashmiri for our benefit. mon land. The government has ultimately Our findings on the very first trip out typi- decided that the landlords are not to be coin- fled much of what we found on subsequent pensated at all, and it is this rather than any trips. We stopped at the revenue office of the other action of the government that became township of Chrorisharif where we chanced on the target of landlord opposition and makes a group of sixty to seventy farmers. On the the Kashmir program unique in India. wide expanse of the lawn, ranged in a circle, all manner of questions were raised and answers These are the essential provisions of the land given. They spoke eagerly, interrupting each reform legislation in Kashmir. To this observer other lest the visitor failed to get a point. This they are basically sound, except for the failure was the most loquacious group of farmers this to pay any price for the land and the failure observer has yet met in India. This feature was to make a distinction between the significance characteristic of all other people whom the land of 22.5 acres of wet land and 22.5 acres of dry question touched in one way or another. Most land, fertile or nonproductive. In Jammu, for of the farmers in question were there at the instance, where dry land predominates, this revenue office to realize a lifetime ambition: amount of land an owner can retain is worth their ownership titles to the land obtained un- infinitely less than a similar amount of wet land der the reform were being registered that day, an owner can retain in the Kashmir valley. But and only at a cost of a rupee or two for stamps vastly more important than a foreign observer's to legalize the deed. Thus our first encounter strictures against these particular provisions of with the 'Land to the tillers" idea translated the reform is whether, from the point of view into action. of the tenant, the legislation as a whole is being "Would any of the assembled care to ex- enforced and what benefits he derives from it. plain what this reform is and how it came With this in mind, we visited a number of vil- about?" There was no end of willing exponents. lages and land revenue offices in various parts They couldn't cite this or that section or sub- of the Kashmir valley where we discussed land section of the act, but they knew a good deal reform matters with a great many farmers; we about rent reduction, occupancy rights, and met also with two of the leading landlords of ownership of land, judging by individual re- Kashmir, one Hindu and one Muslim, who citals of rents paid, permanency of tenure en- stated their side of the story in no uncertain joyed, and land owned before and after the terms. Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah, Reve- reform. The often-heard statement that illiterate nue Minister M. M. A. Beg, Chief Land Re- farmers-and 96 percent of the farmers of form Officer R. C. Raina, and a number of Kashmir are illiterate-cannot presumably as- local officials were readily available for a state- similate rapid changes of status, doesn't hold ment of their position. true in Kashmir. They are illiterate but not While in Srinagar the government of Kash- ignorant; they know full well the meaning of mir put its "best foot forward" to present its a larger or smaller share of the crop, of evic- case, but at no time did it attempt to convince tion as against noneviction, a piece of land the visitor of the excellence of its program by they can call their own as against rented land. resorting to anything resembling a conducted In the mind of would-be recipients of land re- tour. Nothing was prearranged; we traveled form benefits, the changes in their status are north or south, east or west as the spirit moved blurred only when reform enforcement is non- us. Sometimes the jeep would halt at a village, existent or is badly lagging. In Kashmir reform at other times at a threshing common in the legislation is enforced and the drive of enforce- open field, at the sight of a few farmers by the ment permeates all layers of government from roadside, or at a district office. The very compe- the top down. tent Mr. Raina accompanying this observer was When the farmers were asked how the re- 182 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 forms came about, the answers were unani- with Sheikh Abdullah and his government. In mous: "Sheikh Sahib gave them to us." the circumstances, enforcement is inevitable; Throughout the Kashmir valley the refrain to the farmers themselves are becoming the en- this question was the same. Many a farmer an- forcers although formally they are not dele- swered the query in a tone of incredulity; to gated with such duties. think that the visitor doesn't know that Sheikh In the village of Kanispara we witnessed a Abdullah is the source of this munificence! change in the attitude of the farmers which is "But how do you know that Sheikh Abdullah easily traceable to the conviction that the re- is responsible for the reforms?" The answer is form was there to stay and that the government that they heard him speak about the reform, ex- is on their side. One of the tenants stated that plain its essence, and assure them it is meant his landlord refused to accept one-fourth of for them. And to the question why Sheikh Sahib the crop due him in accordance with the provi- gave them the reform, the answer is that "he sion of the act. In response to the question how is of our own stock and he took pity on us." he resolved the problem he said: "I gave him Visits to various parts of the valley made it nothing; I shall pay him the legal rent when he abundantly clear that Sheikh Abdullah carried changes his mind." Whether all tenants be- the reform message on all conceivable occasions. haved similarly is difficult to judge, but the In the peasant-proprietory village of Droru, the whole pattern of the questions and the manner farmers told us that they, too, knew that it was in which the answers were given points to this Sheikh Abdullah's reform and that some of conclusion: the rental provisions are being them traveled to a neighboring district to carried out. listen to "Sher-i-Kashmir" (the lion of Kash- As with the rentals, so with the occupancy mir) talk about the land and the farmers. A rights. In Kanispara and in the other villages farmer interjected saying that "even our chil- these rights are in being, and eviction of a dren know about him, and we all pray for his protected tenant-a status most of them enjoy health." In this village the farmers' concern now-is extremely difficult. Both parties to the was centered on lack of livestock, better seed, land, tenants and landlord, are aware of it. To and fertilizer to raise agricultural production. recover the land, the owner must prove to the Their faith in Sheikh Abdullah being so great, satisfaction of the revenue court a good deal we asked them why they did not appeal to him which would be hard to prove. He must satisfy for assistance. One of the farmers answered the court that the land in question is being without hesitation: "Sheikh Sahib is busy now misused, or that the tenant failed to pay the fighting our war; when that is over we shall rent without due cause, or that he doesn't culti- ask him for help." vate the land in the customary ways of the Sheikh Abdullah is a well-known political locality, or that he wants the land back for self- leader of Kashmir of many years' standing. cultivating. The latter point must be proved Among his own people he is fast becoming a beyond a shadow of a doubt. legend, and many a farmer who had never To date, there have been virtually no evic- heard or seen the Prime Minister will never- tion cases on non-self-cultivation or self-cultiva- theless insist that he beheld him in the flesh. tion grounds. Tenants are not in the mood of What is important, however, is that he did moving off the land even when the owner estab- raise the land issue to a place of highest im- lishes a good case of self-cultivation. In their portance, and he did set the tone for the rest minds a prereform noncultivating owner should of the government to follow. We met with not become a cultivating one now. This stems local officials who are themselves landowners, from a growing belief among the tenants that but most of them would not dare to water down as cultivators they are the real owners of the the enforcement of the provisions. The climate land, legal rights to the contrary notwithstand- is against such proclivities. The tenants know ing. This is not surprising. Leading members that they can find redress in the higher gov- of the government are on record that the land ernmental levels and so do the officials. The belongs to those who cultivate it. Revenue overall impression one gets is that in the minds Minister Beg stated that "The land of God of the farmers the reform is closely identified shall belong to the men of God." In a personal Land Reform Observations in Kashmir 183 interview with this observer, he repeated what tion limit as a temporary development and he broadcasted far and wide throughout Kash- were of the opinion that it will be drastically mir: "So long as the land doesn't pass into the reduced if not wiped out altogether. The ques- possession of the self-tilling peasants nothing tion then was raised about the moral justice can better their lives and give light to their so of the step they looked forward to. By way of far dark and dismal existence. The peasant a reply a tenant stated that they were entitled must feel that the land on which he toils be- to the land because "our ancestors reclaimed it longs to him, and that he is not just sweating and we till it." The tenant spoke for the many for somebody else. Of course, then alone agri- in his village, and subsequent experience proved culture will begin to yield the maximum har- that he voiced the view of tenants in other parts vest." A good deal of this preachment has of the Kashmir valley as well. Revenue Minister reached the village, has stirred up the tenants, Beg confirmed this. He stated that Kashmir as and is creating a state of mind which assumes a welfare state has its primary obligation to that the land he cultivates belongs to him. As the tillers, and, under certain circumstances, one tenant put it: "Before the reform the land- abridgment of property is an accepted prin- lord could do anything; now, with Sheikh ciple exercised even in capitalistic countries. Sahib, we own the land." There is nothing aca- As far as he was concerned, expropriation of demic in this attitude; its practical significance land of noncultivators falls in the same cate- becomes apparent no sooner the question is gory as, say, the redistribution of wealth in raised of compensation versus noncompensation England through taxation, the infringements on for the land acquired by the tenants under the private enterprise through price controls, or Abolition of the Big Landed Estates Act. eminent domain concepts, and so on. The atti- Even a casual reading of the legislation re- . tude of Sheikh Abdullah is essentially the same, veals that the gains of the tenants are unequally even if stated differently. Hence the strong im- distributed, depending on the type of land culti- pression that in Kashmir, where the govern- vated, and, above all, upon the size of an own- mnent rules without the benefit of an effective er's holding from whom a tenant rents land. In opposition, the current land ownership provi- the village of Pampur we asked a number of sions of the act are not the last word on the tenants what they gained under the reform. subject; the retention limit will in all proba- All of them acquired occupancy rights. Some bility be revised downward in order to satisfy of them had their rents reduced from one-half the economic and political ideologies of the to one-third; others from one-half to one-fourth "New Kashmir" on the one hand, and the of the gross crop; while those who rented land hunger of the peasants for the land on the from owners with holdings of 12.5 acres or other. less continued to pay half of one crop. Unless If all the 120,000 noncultivating owners a tenant's rental was more than half of the were denied the right of land ownership, the crop, his sole gain was the right of remaining tenants would stand to gain an estimated total on the land undisturbed. The more fortunate of 660,000 acres. But under the provisions of ones, those renting from holders of more than the existing act the immediate question is three- 22.5 acres, actually acquired land, the amount fold: how many of them will be affected, how varying from one acre to as high as six acres; much land will be turned over to the tenants, and a few were given state-owned land. Clearly and how many tenants will benefit from the the range of the gains is very considerable- land transfer? The answer depends upon whose from occupancy rights only to actual ownership set of statistics one accepts-those furnished by at no cost to the tiller, the government or those supplied by the spokes- The inequality of gains could become a men of the landlords. Not being in a position source of dissatisfaction and jealousies among to venture an opinion about the soundness of the tenants, and their reaction on this point either, both versions may be mentioned. was elicited. They stated that such fears were The government and landlords agree as to groundless because of the strong conviction the total acreage of the noncultivators; but, that sooner or later all of the land will belong while the former claims that 9,000 landlords or to them. They looked upon the present reten- 7.5 percent of the total are in the 22.5 acres 184 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 class, the latter set a figure of only 5,000 or 4 old Laski to bolster up their case; they quoted percent of the total. If the first variant is cor- approvingly from the latter's A Grammar of rect, the landlords can retain over 200,000 Politics to the effect that "Men will sooner, as acres in addition to a fairly large acreage under Machiavelli said, forgive the death of their orchards, or a total of approximately 250,000 relatives than the confiscation of property. acres. This would leave 400,000 acres to be Nothing is more likely to poison the spirit of distributed, according to official sources, among body politic than the sudden disappointment a few hundred thousand landless tenants and of financial expectations." Last, but not least, part owners-part tenants. The second variant they argue that the reforms partake of re- presents a different picture. It assumes that the ligious discrimination because the landlords are 5,000 own 250,000 acres, of which they can mostly Hindus while the administrators of retain 110,000, leaving only 140,000 acres to be Kashmir are Muslims. But all the arguments shared by a much smaller number of tenants availed them nothing. than that anticipated by the government. We The government never intended to pay for are not in a position to check the accuracy of the land. The appointment of the Land Com- either version, but the discussion with the land- pensation Committee to examine the issue and lords left a strong impression that they were make recommendations was the way of giving bent on minimizing the scope of the reform a semblance of legality to nonpayment. Sheikh and its benefits to the tenants. They go so far Abdullah foretold the turn of events before the as to claim that not 140,000 but 80,000 acres is recommendations were in when he spoke as all the tenants can get. The idea behind this follows: "Substantial portions of the landed approach as expressed by the landlords is property came to be owned from such land as simple: Since relatively few tenants will bene- was the property of the State before, and in fit from the Abolition Act, why bother with every case the acquisition of the land was free the scheme at all? The partisanship of the land- from any encumbrance or payment of any con- lords in presenting their case is understandable, sideration. It is in the light of this historical but the data upon which it rests are question- backgrounds that the Honorable Members of able. The official data, too, are in all probability this House shall have to consider whether there subject to a considerable margin of error and is any justification for payment of any compen- for the very opposite reasons which motivate sation to such landowners for lands from which the landlords. On balance, however, many more they are expropriated under the Big Landed landless and near-landless will be favorably af- Estates Abolition Act." fected by the current land distribution program The commission under the chairmanship of than the landlords care to admit. Minister of Revenue Beg handed in its report The Kashmir landlords do not wish to part on March 22, 1952. The report noted that the with any of their land even for a price. No land originally belonged to the tillers; that the wonder, therefore, that they are dismayed with intermediary interests were created by the the decision of the government to deprive them maharaja's rule; that present-day proprietors of the land with no compensation whatever. are the descendents of the rent collectors; re- This feature, much more than the ceiling on cepients of government gifts, and leaseholders landlord holdings, places the Kashmir program who succeeded in getting themselves recog- in a very special class. The landowners advanced nized as landowners even though the land was a number of reasons for compensation. These reclaimed and improved by the tenants. The included constitutional rights, the fundamental commission held that, as "sleeping partners," right of a person to own property, moral and so- the landlords had no right to own land and cial obligations of the state towards the citizens must be contented with their retentions under regardless of class, allusions to Sheikh Abdul- the act. As to those who purchased land in re- lah's "New Kashmir" program with its stated cent years, "most of them have made large aim that no one should be allowed to starve, profits and in any case all these are mere specu- the historic development of landlordism, and lators in land in the ultimate analysis." In the the legality of land acquisition. They even in- commission's view the compensation clause of voked the shades of John Stuart Mill and Har- the Indian constitution did not apply to Kash- Lnd Reform Observations in Kashmir 185 mirl and the state has a right to acquire private near to delivering Kashmir to its enemies. "Let property on any conditions it deems proper if them," he remarked, "concentrate their thoughts the act is in the best public interest. Based upon and energies on problems which really matter, these and other arguments, the commission ar- the economic problems." Another factor is the rived at the following conclusions and recom- apparent dedication to fashion a "New Kash- mendations: mir." The theoretical underpinnings of this last factor are revolutionary slogans. In Kashmir, The tillers, to whom the excess land from onyadyrmvdfmfeals adyt which the big proprietors are expropriated only a day removed from feudalism and yet is transferred in ownership right, are an still steeped in it, Revenue Minister Beg indigent, impoverished and much exploited prefaces his series of speeches on the "whys" of inignt io verishednafrecoind mche poite reform with these famous lines from Shelley's class. No question of recovering the price "Song to the Men of England": of the lands from them does arise. As a State with limited resources we are too poor to Men of England, wherefore plough pay compensation from out of the State For the lords who lay ye low? Revenues. The financial liability will be of Wherefore weave with toil and care a very serious nature and payment itself will The rich robes your tyrants wear? prove incalculably mischievous. Apart from Rise like lions after slumber these considerations, there is no moral, eco- In unconquerable number. nomic or social basis for compensation. We Shake your chains to earth like dew, therefore recommend, both on principle and You are many, they are few! [2] policy, the payment of compensation to the But it is not only slogans; the actions, too, are expropriated proprietors is not desirable. The resolute and uncompromising with an eye to payment of compensation would perpetuate achievement of the goals. One wonders only the present inequitable distribution of wealth, why the government of Kashmir devoted time Four days later on March 26 the Constituent and effort investigating the issue of compensa- Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir decreed that tion versus noncompensation when in the opin- no compensation shall be paid for the land ion of the government it had no other way out distributed among the tenants under the Big and when, ideologically speaking, the govern- Landed Estates Abolition Act. ment has always been in tune with noncompen- The commission stretched the "principle" sation. issue of noncompensation too far, and the argu- The Big Landed Estates Abolition Act is far ments of the landlords on this point have not from completed; as of July 1952, a total of been met. Nor is the lack of means a valid rea- 132,000 acres were distributed among 129,000 son for noncompensation. Yet anyone who has cultivators, while 48,000 acres temporarily seen at close range the poverty of the Kashmiri vested in the state are earmarked for distribu- tenant and is familiar with the overall de- tion. The enforcement is proceeding apace, and pressed economic conditions of the state can it may be said that it will not be relaxed until readily appreciate the dilemma which faced the last acre subject to the act finds its way the reformers of Kashmir: a token payment at into the hands of the tenants. best or wiping the slate clean by shifting all of The process is of necessity a slow one. No- the burden of reform on the big owners. They tices must be served on the big proprietors to did the latter and for a number of economic select the land they can retain before the excess and political reasons, each one affecting the is distributed. Changes in the revenue books other. Sheikh Abdullah told this observer that must be made accordingly. The transfer of the his government initiated this type of reform land to the tillers entails numerous alterations partly because it was of utmost importance to in the village records. The distribution of the divert the minds of the majority of the people land calls for reassignments of revenues assess- from communal (religious) strife which came ments, which in turn are based on the estab- lishment of an accurate record-of-tights. The 1. Kashmir's accession to India in 1947 was with reference to only three subjects-defense, foreign [2. The second stanza is not from "Song to the affairs, and communications. Men of England"; its source has not been identified.] 186 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 culmination of this painstaking and time- IV. A. Under the provisions of Aboli- consuming process is the registration of title of tion of Big Landed Estates Act, 2007, a cer- ownership of the new owner cultivator. In the tain proprietor after selecting his 182 kanals village register it reads as follows: "Field meas- leaves for transfer to the tillers 100 kanals uring - canals of land in holding Num- which is under a mortgage. How will the ber - , of which the right of ownership rights and liabilities of the mortgages be of so-and-so as against payment of land volume determined; and cesses amounting to - per annum, if in accordance with the Act of October 17, 1. the mortgagee is in cultivating posses- 1950." It is surprising, therefore, how much has sion of the area, and been accomplished when one examines the vil- 2. the tiller of the area is a person other lage records, as we have done repeatedly. Some than the mortgagee. of the reasons underlying the progress have B. "A" is an ex-proprietor of 100 kanals, been dealt with. Part of the explanation lies in the ownership of which has been extin- the chief land reform officer's able planning guished under section 4 of the Abolition of and direction of the work in the field. Impor- Big Landed Estates Act. To whom and to tant, too, is the fact the government for its part what extent will you transfer the area in the augmented the old land revenue staff with a following cases: special contingent to step up the implementa- 1. Where the tiller of this area has al- tion of the program. It aimed to select a group ready 100 kanals under his own pro- of people who know what the policies are about prietorship, and are in sympathy with them. On both scores, 2. Where the tiller of the area is a non- the test paper entitled "Departmental Examina- state subject, tion of Deputy Commissioners and Tehsildars 3. Where the area in question was owned for 1951," prepared by Revenue Minister Beg, by an evacuee as defined in the Jammu is revealing. The paper consists of four ques- & Kashmir State Evacuees (Adminis- tions, and the first and fourth are reproduced tration of Property Act) 2006, and below: 4. Where the area is untenanted. Subject D: Agrarian Reforms To this observer this is just another illustra- I. "The history of freedom movements from tion of how concerned the government has the Middle Ages to modern times had only been with the land program and how a com- one lesson to teach that freedom from all bination of all kinds of measures engendered forms of economic exploitation is the only by a determined leadership serves to insure the true guarantee of political democracy, and completion of the program. without it political freedom is a mere shib- Land reform is the most publicized of all boleth. Even the winged ideals of 'Liberty, rural improvement measures, but the attempts Equality and Fraternity' of the French Revo- to relieve farm indebtedness, as we observed lution bought at the price of the people's them in action in the Kashmir valley, are also blood, degenerated into the autocracy of Na- worthy of notice. Along with the rest of India, poleon, because privilege and exploitation the farmers of Kashmir are "born in debt, live persisted in their old strongholds. Freedom in debt, and die in debt." About four-fifths of and Privilege are the two sides of a pair of the indebtedness is incurred for nonproductive scales: as Privilege gets lighter, Freedom purposes at rates ranging from 12 to 50 or more gets heavier." (Quotation from Introduction percent a year. Normally the debt continues to New Kashnir by S. M. Abdullah.) increasing automatically because it could not In the light of the basic idea underlying create any means of its own repayment. The the above passage, state what concrete steps moneylending practices and their consequences did the present regime of S. M. Abdullah's have been treated exhaustively by students of government take toward ending the eco- Indian rural finance, and it should suffice to say nomic exploitation by the privileged class of that M. L. Darling's The Punjab Peasant in the feudal system in the state. Prosperity and Debt surely applies to Kashmir. Land Reform Observations in Kashmir 187 The Kashmir government decided to act dras- creditor owes the debtor Rs20. Unpalatable tically with the burden of accumulated in- though the decisions are, the creditors usually debtedness, and for that purpose it enacted the accept them. The conciliation boards not only Jammu and Kashmir Distressed Debtors' Re- scale down debts but they also fix easy terms lief Act of 1949. of repayment, the average period being twelve The act consists of thirty-seven articles, but years. Between July 1950 and the end of 1951, the following are of real importance: nine conciliation boards examined 41,000 and 1. Special conciliation Boards set up through- settled .35,000 cases. The total debt of these cases involving an estimated RsI0 million was outashmirtceedingage in5, . sscaled down to Rs2.3 million or 77 percent. det.o xeeigR500 The Debt Conciliation Board scheme tdid not 2. Within four months of the establishment of ogTe wt thecKahinir govement.nt a Board, debtor and creditor are expected to submit to it an application for debt settle- Punjab, Bengal, the central provinces, and m Madras have applied this method to the same ment. When the creditor fails to do that his. debt claim is automatically extinguished. end in the years past. The only difference be- tween the one under discussion and the others 3. The Board is given the right to presume is that in Kashmir the scaling down of debts that the debtor has paid 150 percent of the has been more drastic. It should be noted, how- principal where a debt has remained out-. standingl fre x yes o s m re a d t ever, that in Kashmir as in the other states, staningfor ix earsor ore relief from indebtedness, important though it 4. All claims against a debtor are to be dis- . fd . missed where he has paid back to his cred- is, is not a lasting solution. Even though the io farmer is relieved from debt, his needs for itor in cash or kind or both an amount equal crdtwhheteybpoutiernnr- to 10 prcet o th pricipl, ny ay- credit, whether they be productive or nonpro- tom150erent ofove tathe rci. Ay p- ductive, do not slacken, and the boards tend to mnent above that may be credited by the d Board as a sum the creditor owes the debtor. dry up the normal credit channels. They are 5. not substitutes for a sound, government-financed 5. Any settlement of a debt arrived at after crdtsse the establishment of the Conciliation Boards And this is what Kashmir needs are considered void unless approved by a (as do all other states of India) if indebtedness Board. is to be maintained at reasonable levels and interest rates. The rules laid down by the act certainly Assuming that the reforms are effectively favor the debtor, and a few hours spent watch- carried out, what will be their effects in Kash- ing the Srinagar Board in action made it clear mir and in the rest of India? The confiscatory that -the members interpret not only the letter nature of the Kashmir land distribution pro- but the spirit of the act as well. One notices gram will be felt, if it is not felt already, at first glance that the debtors feel at home throughout India. The dilemma which con- there, while the creditors are ill at ease, not fronted Kashmir leaders is confronting many only because they know that the "outstanding" states in India not so much with respect to as they calculated it will be cut sharply but zamindari abolition," which has been facilitated also because many sordid details of creditor- by a recent amendment of the constitution,4 as debtor relations come into the open. The board procedure is of the simplest kind. The request 3. Zamindari abolition refers to the elimination for settlement is accompanied by a board fee of intermediary interests who hold land on payment of Rs2, and seldom does debtor or creditor ap- of land revenue to the state and the person with the pear with a lawyer to argue a case. The mem- right of cultivation. 4. Article 31 of the constitution has been bers of the board examine the appeals and amended to provide that the validity of any compen- often render a decision on the spot. A farmer sation for an intermediary right, which may be de- walks in heavily indebted and walks out free cided by any state government, will not be questioned of all debt or the debt drastically reduced. In in any court. This amendment doesn't, however, one instance the creditor sued the debtor for cover the cases where a tenant holds land from own- ers who have the right of cultivation, a right associ- Rs500, but having examined the case and with ated in most cases with that of transfer, sale, mort- great dispatch, the board decided that the gaging, subletting, and so forth. 188 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 with respect to giving ownership of land to ernments and that they are aroused to greater tenants of persons who own it. The slow prog- efforts for further betterment. But even in ress of this direction is due to the fact that Kashmir where the land reform has reached out neither the tiller nor the government is in a deeper than in any other part of India, the re- position to buy off the landlord interests." And sult is an economic palliative rather than the the constitution of India prohibits the acquisi- solution of the new owners' problem. The bene- tion of such property rights without reasonable ficiaries are mainly farmers with only 1 to 2 compensation. The result to date is extreme acres, and therein lies the crux of the difficulty. cautiousness in undertaking far-reaching meas- Sheikh Abdullah knows that tiny holdings ures involving large-scale compensation. For limit the effectiveness of the soundest of re- this reason in certain circles-and not Commu- forms, but he doesn't underestimate the bene- nist circles-the Kashmir approach is envied, ficial changes attained and correctly surmises even if not followed. It is worth noting that that the Kashmir reforms provide a suitable upon the recent publication of the Planning foundation for land improvement and higher Commission's report ("Five-Year-Plan: Draft agricultural production. This observer carried Outline") voices have been raised about the away the impression that his government is need of reexamining article 31 of the constitu- ready to tap all available indigenous resources tion (which provides for compensation of prop- to that end. Sheikh Abdullah stated that Kash- erty) with a view to speeding tip the land re- mir could learn much from the experience of form movement. The latest straw in the wind other countries, and he wishes to take advantage is the request upon the chief ministers of the of opportunities in that field as they present states, made by the All-India Congress Corn- themselves. The farmers, too, understand that mittee, to report as soon as possible on legal the tenure changes signalize the beginning of impediments to land reform in their territories a land improvement program. On numerous arising from the constitutional provision re- occasions they voiced the opinion that as owners garding compensation. This point was raised at or protected tenants they will improve the land, the last meeting of the Congress Working Coin- but the need of continued government assist- mittee by the Minister of Revenue of Bombay ance is mentioned in the same breath. To date who called the attention of the Executive Coin- the government has demonstrated its pledges to mittee of the Congress Party to the difficulties assist the farmers in a manner the landlords experienced in his state. It was then decided never did. Six new irrigation canals have been that the question should be examined by the opened and two more are under construction. AICC for the purpose of suggesting ways and Of the six canals, two are already functioning, means of amending article 31 of the constitu- and they have brought under cultivation 10,000 tion, additional acres of land. Next year it is ex- Whatever the future repercussions of the pected that 13,000 more acres will be added. Kashmir reform upon India, in Kashmir proper But much more will have to be done, and the they are significant. The economic gains have pace of making the small farms large through already been outlined. They are uneven now, expanded agricultural production will depend but most tenants can point to some benefit. The upon the financial means and technical assis- retention limit is bound to be reduced, and tance, domestic and foreign, to further such old more tenants will enjoy the more profitable and new undertakings as reclamation, irriga- status of owner cultivator. In sum, in the light tion, drainage, animal husbandry centers, ex- of prereform conditions, they are unquestion- periment stations and extension service, agri- ably better off economically. The social gain is cultural credit, and a host of other measures. also apparent. To listen to the farmers of Kash- Whether the necessary means will be available mir talk is to realize that they are shedding the is another matter, but since the government and traditional subservience to landlords and gov- the farmers are as one on the tasks ahead, the environment for further progress has been 5. The very, very few who could pay are reluctant created. to do so because of the widespread feeling that While economic results of the reforms call eventually they will get the land for nothing. for qualifications, the political need none. When Comments on Land Reform in India 189 the Kashmir leaders talk or write about agrarian Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference, has reforms, the political motivations and their taken on a communal or religious turn, essen- political consequences are hardly mentioned. tially Hindu. But the fact is that the number They are there, nevertheless, chiefly because the of affected and disaffected landlords is small, Muslim religion of the farmers doesn't loom whereas the number of those who benefited is any longer as a serious issue in the final dis- large. Moreover, in the final analysis the Hindu position of the Kashmir problem. Large seg- landlords cannot side with Pakistan for religious ments of the farm population have been suc- reasons, if no other. Some individuals in Srina- cessfully induced to shift their attention from gar tried to convince us that these conclusions religious to economic matters. This in itself is are unwarranted and that the Kashmir govern- a significant political development from the ment is so unpopular that even Hindus, let point of view of India-Pakistan difficulties over alone Muslims, are pro-Pakistan. It is our Kashmir. Even more important is that the most strong belief, however, that they have been ex- striking by-product of the reforms is the wide- pressing strong political prejudices which will spread conviction among the farmers that not stand up under test. When the real test Sheikh Abdullah and his government are re- comes of whether or not Kashmir should opt sponsible for the improvements in their eco- permanently for India, the majority of Muslim nomic and social status. With this goes politica! farmers of Kashmir along with the Hindu popu- support. The other side of the picture is that lation including the Hindu landlords will in the reforms have alienated Hindu landed all probability vote for Sheikh Abdullah and aristocracy. For this reason, the agitation of the his preference. Therein lies the political conse- Praja Parishad (People's Party), as opposed to quence of the land reforms in Kashmir. 21. Comments on Land Reform in India Almost immediately after concluding his late 1952 visit to India, Ladejinsky participated in an in-house Conference on Land Tenure conducted by the Ford Foundation in New York in early December of that year. The main object of the conference, apparently, was to help the foundation define program objectives for its work in Asia on land reform. The comments presented here, taken verbatim from the conference transcript, represent Ladejinsky's longest single intervention at the conference. He obviously spoke extemporaneously, the session was quite informal, and the communication between speaker and audience-with frequent question interruptions-was close. Ladejinsky here draws basic conclusions from his Punjab, Madras, and Kashmir observations in fundamental terms; stresses the futility of any external official attempts to influence land reform policies in India; and suggests to the foundation that it can contribute most usefully in this field by supporting relevant work at Indian universities, where respected scholars can do much to improve the climate for necessary reforms. An interesting revelation is his account of how he came to be invited to make his 1952 visit to India and the reception he encountered. This was not the only time in Ladejinsky's career that he arrived to find something less than a warm welcome. His par- ticipation in this conference is said to have influenced considerably the shaping of the Ford Foundation's programs in Asia. MR. LADEJINSKY: To begin with, I will deal mind. Or how do you feel about it? Shall I with India, as that country is the freshest in my talk about Japan or Formosa? 190 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 VOICE: I think really what we're interested abolish the so-called zamindari, which is the in are the issues that are involved rather than group of landowners who, by virtue of certain the particular countries. I see no great difficulty provisions made by the English as far back as in your moving back and forth from one coun- 1793 were given the right to collect rent for try to another. the British and by virtue of that service were MR. LADEJINSKY: . . . India is forty-eight later on given what amounts to ownership of different countries. Madras alone is six. that land. A part of the legislation is dealing Well, as some of you probably know, I with the abolition of the zamindari system, spent the last three months in India looking at taking them out of the picture and making the the question that we call land tenure or land cultivating farmer pay directly to the state. reform. We will spend some time finding out At the present time, or before reform in cer- what they are doing and perhaps come up with tain states, it is the zamindar who collected the some conclusions as to what they are doing or rents. The zamindar paid part of the revenue what they might do. of those lands to the government. Now, as a As to the matter of looking at it, I pretty result of some of the changes that will be of much followed in the footpath of my prede- help to the cultivating farmers, they pay rent cessor sitting in the chair here, and I toured a directly to the government and come into di- good deal of the country, north and south, east rect relationship to the government. and west. Since the country is an enormous As far as that goes, something has been done. one, I couldn't visit all of the principal states In the . . .I province Ken visited, there is a that one should perhaps look into. But I have law to the effect that the zamindari as such seen enough to venture an opinion as to the are abolished, that the rents as of a certain goings-on there. date-which are in effect the land tax-will When one reads the Indian press-and by be paid by the tenant to the government. The this I mean the English language press-and significant fact about the zamindari abolition is follows it day after day for the past two years this-that it is really not as profound a reform and certainly during the period I was there, one as one was led to believe. I myself was under gets the impression that a good deal is being the impression at one time that the abolition done in India. Seldom is the day that one does of the zamindari in India would be doing a not come across an item about land reform great deal. distribution in this state, land reform legislation You haven't done a great deal for the simple in another state, and all along the line. reason that the status of the cultivating farmer One does get the impression on the basis of really does not change in any way. That is, what these reports that a good deal is going on in he paid to the zamindar he continues to pay to the country at the present time. In reality, when the government, except that the government, by you begin to look behind the scene-and by virtue of that change, will get a much larger this I mean when you go down to the villages revenue than it was getting in the past because and talk to the people, talk to the officialdom, in the past the zamindar would retain a good examine the legislation-then you begin to real- share of that revenue. ize that something is going on, but there is not I will illustrate my point. When this so- very, very much. One couldn't say, for instance, called permanent settlement of the British took that in India at the present time a land reform place in 1793, the rule was that the zamindar program is being carried out. One could say would collect one-eleventh of the revenue as that some initial steps have been taken along his for his service and ten-elevenths of the certain lines. revenue would be given to the government. In We might divide the whole proposition into time it came about that the relationship has three basic points. This is the one of legislation changed. The zamindar retains ten-elevenths enforcement and the climate surrounding the and the government receives one-eleventh. reforms. Each in itself contains a number of Now, with this change, the government will items, and I shall try to touch upon them. As to the legislation itself, it may be roughly divided into two parts. One is the attempt to 1. Evidently missed by the transcriber. [Ed.) Comments on Land Reform in India 191 be getting the full revenue. The question point out later, there is the feeling on the part arises: What is the tenant getting out of it? of the cultivators that sooner or later they will And the answer is that basically he does not get have the land anyway. What is more, they in- much out of it because he is paying the same tend to get it-although they don't quite say revenue to the government. Perhaps the only it-but the feeling is prevalent that when they positive aspect of it is that he comes in direct do get it they will get it for nothing. And this relationship with the government. Perhaps it is something that you can find no matter where may lead to some other changes. He does not you go in India at the present time. Although have an overseer in the form of a zamindar. there is nothing in the legislation or climate But when you talk to the farmers about it- surrounding the land reform program, anything as I did recently in one of the provinces in that indicates that they will get the land for Bihar, for instance-they will tell you that as nothing. However, this is the feeling. It has a far as they are concerned, abolition of the very important inference and the cultivating zamindar did not make much difference for the farmers, as a body, are not buying the land from simple reason that the government can be much the government at ten times the revenue-and harder a taskmaster than the zamindar can be. I might tell you that ten times the revenue The idea that every zamindar is a rapacious really is a small price, much smaller, I imagine, landlord is not really correct. Some of them do than the price in Iran or, for that matter, in have a good deal of noblesse oblige, and it Formosa or Korea or in any other country I does come to the fore now and then. I know know of. many instances of when the tenant is remiss in VOICE: Would that word "revenue" be in- the paying of his revenue, over the years he terchangeable with "tax"? can make some deal with the landlord. The MR. LADEJINSKY: With land tax. zamindar would permit him to pay on an in- So this is as far as the zamindari part of it stallment basis. All in all, he is closer to the goes, and I am by now convinced, though I do zamindar than he is to the government. The not want to be dogmatical about it, nevertheless fear on the part of the cultivating farmer is I have the strong feeling that it is really half that he may not get the same sort of treatment a measure as far as the cultivating farmers are from an impersonal government which sends concerned. Sooner or later the government will around a revenue collector to collect the rent. have to go the whole hog and somehow effect If you don't pay, you simply have to pay. a deal whereby they will become the virtual So there is no enthusiasm, I would say, on owners of the land and all that goes with it. the part of the cultivating tenants. But the real problem in India is not the VOICE: Is the situation in Bihar very much zamindari, the ownership of the land by the like it is in U.P. [Uttar Pradesh] with refer- zamindari. It is the other and much larger group ence to... of tenants and agricultural laborers who work MR. LADE.JINSKY: Very much, very much in- the land of the people who own the land as deed. distinguished from the zamindari who received And so I was rather struck at the beginning the land by virtue of that special deal with the to find that the much talked-about zamindari British. There you find an entirely different abolition is not all it might seem to be. More- situation. Before I go into that, I think it over, even [with} the abolition of the zamin- should be made crystal clear that you have a dari system in effect, a cultivating owner is not very special situation in India. Perhaps a third in effect the owner of the land. Ownership of of the farm population has no stake in the land the land is vested in the hands of the govern- whatsoever, and I am talking now about agri- ment. And so the government, as is the case in cultural laborers-so-called permanent laborers Uttar Pradesh, told them, "Yes, you can be- and casuals. These constitute, they say-nobody come owners providing you can pay ten times really knows what the figures are-incidentally, the revenue"-is it Ken? as far as statistics are concerned, I think India In actual practice no tenant is willing to pay is about as badly off as Iran is or any other ten times the revenue to the government for country in Asia-but on the basis of what I the ownership of the land. In part, as I shall estimated in going from village to village, I 192 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 find that at least a third belong in that category. I must refer only to two big districts which I They have, as they say, no stake in land of any visited primarily because the Communist influ- kind. ence has become very pronounced there and As to the cultivating tenants themselves, very important-in those districts I found situa- one must make very clear that the very term tions which are, for instance, as bad if not "tenant" is altogether different than the term worse than, say, in the Chengtu province in as we use it in the United States or in any other the fall of 1939. Western country. I found, for instance, that In these districts the tenant may pay a rent the worst exploiters in India were not the land- of from 75 to 80 percent of the crop. At the lords, the people who actually owned the land, same time he bears virtually all the costs of but secondary groups who are called tenants but cultivation, and the net result is, of course, next who do not cultivate the land. They sublet the to nothing. If he gets the straw he is very land to somebody else, and these do the culti- lucky. vating. Then the question is, of course, what's the Some of my experiences in Madras might be use? Why go on in this particular situation? enlightening on this point. The answer is simply that he has no alternative. VOICE: There were once subzamindars, or The only alternative is to become a casual something like that? laborer. A casual agricultural laborer works MR. LADEJINSKY: What you actually have is from three to six months a year at a wage of this. Take the case of Bihar: In this province twenty rupees, which is four dollars a month. I found in a number of villages at least six So, having no other alternative, he keeps on different rights to the land between the one cultivating the land. who claimed ownership and the one who actu- But to go back about this peculiar relation- ally cultivated the land. ship that you have in India. The men doing VOICE: Or the top zamindar and the inter- this rack-renting are not really the owners of mediates, the land. They are men, so-called comindari, SECOND VOICE: You have this stratification who rent their land from the people who actu- whether you have zamindari or noncultivating ally own the land. As one of them told me, tenants. "Yes, I rent this piece of land for 120 rupees a MR. LADEJINSKY: As the top zamindari be- year. I get from it roughly 2,000 rupees a year." gan to get more and more than this one- He is the one who is really getting the lion's eleventh and gradually shifted over to getting share of the profit. ten-elevenths, they decided really that they This situation is found with variations all didn't need to bother with the land. They over Madras and many another province. farmed out the land to, say, B; B then decided VOICE: Does he perform any function? to get his cut and would not bother with the MR. LADEJINSKY: As to this-and I am glad land, and farmed it out to C, then from C to D, you raised the question-I am of the opinion, and so on all along the line. In Bengal you can supported by a good deal of evidence (the count as many as seventeen different rights to landlords themselves provided evidence) that the land. they perform no function other than collecting This points, incidentally, to the tremendous the rent. When in one particular instance I complexity of the problem and to the fact that went to talk with the farmers in the fields and you deal not only with a particular individual the landlord happened to come around in a but, when you talk about a land reform which shiny new Ford, it happened that the land be- would eventually give the land to the man who longed to this particular landlord. By the time actually cultivates it, you somehow have to he came there we roughly knew what the terms take care of all the various spheres which are of servitude were. As he walked out we called superimposed upon the man who cultivates over the tenants and they repeated in his pres- that land. ence-and he agreed that those were the terms But to go back for an illustration to Madras, -the landlord became rather uneasy. He didn't for Madras is not unique in this respect. In a like foreigners asking such silly questions, but state such as Madras-and when I say Madras nevertheless he became on the defensive and Comments on Land Reform in India 193 said, "Well, but they don't improve the land!" VOICE: Is he A? The inevitable answer was, "How could they MR. LADEJINSKY: No, it happens that he improve the land under those conditions? What is B. do you do about improving the land?" VOICE: So there were only two ... "No," he said, "I'm not supposed to improve MR. LADEJINSKY: In that case there were the land. It is their job, for they bear all the only the cultivator, B, and A. The elimination costs of cultivation. It is assumed that on their of the other intermediaries is due to custom and profits the tenants do the improving of the tradition, which goes many, many years back. land." For many years B has been renting land from And so we had a situation where the land- A. Now, as a result of legislation, A cannot lord in general-of course there are excep- evict B. He can evict him only after a certain tions-does not perform a function, either number of years and under very special condi- managerial or otherwise. They perform the tions. managerial function only in this sense, that they For all practical purposes, B is the one who are most careful to see to it that the same ten- runs the show. ant should not remain on the same land year Now this sort of a situation-there is no after year. He keeps on shifting them all over need for me to go from state to state. Rents are the place. No tenant knows which land he will not as high in other provinces as they are in cultivate next year. Again I say that this may Tanjore and Malabar. They are particularly not be true in every case. It is an outgrowth, high there because you do have this tremendous really, of all the land reform agitation in the concentration of population. It is the best land, last six years. The idea of that is that if you and where you have these conditions rents are stay on the land over a certain number of years, normally of that type. then you can claim occupancy rights. This Now, what does the Indian government do means that you limit the powers of the land- about this? lord to evict the tenant. In order to prevent VOICE: This is also rice land, isn't it? that, the landlord shifts the tenant from one MR. LADEJINSKY: In this instance. In Tan- piece of land to another. The result is that, in jore it is rice land, in Malabar it is the area one village in the Punjab province way up for garden land. Basically they are good, wet north, I came across a situation where the lands.... farmers went for seventy-five years working in Now the question is as to what the govern- one area, but no farmer could prove in court ment is doing about some of these things. You that he had been on the same land for seven know that the Indian government has com- years. If he could, he would then get occupancy mitted itself to what they call a land reform rights. But in no instance could he prove that program. The Congress Party, which is the he has those rights, because, in the first place, governing party of India, has had much to say the records are nonexistent. on that subject-in the past before they as- When the talk about land reform began, the sumed power and now when they have been in landlord saw to it that no record would exist power for the last five years, that A cultivates this particular piece of land. I might also point out here that there has So you have this situation that is, as they say, a been recognition-and I think we have to agree managerial function. But it is largely addressed with it-that you cannot enact an overall legis- to the idea that you keep the farmers shifting lation for India as a whole. The differences are from one piece of land to another. When it so terrific, not only between state and state, but comes to improvement of land and such mat- even within a state, that the talk about a na- ters, he doesn't function there at all. tional law wouldn't be practical. The best you VOICE: Before you get too far away, this can do is lay down certain general principles, owner who came out with the bright new Ford and we'll talk about that later. -is he the real owner? And so there has been recognition that the MR. LADEJINSKY: No, he is not the real states themselves wvill have to enter the picture owner. He is the man who is renting the and do something about these landlord-tenant land ... relationships. In the process, during the past 194 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 five years, something has been done. To begin item-that, in yielding those rights, the land- with, I mentioned the zamindari abolitions. In lord has the right to resume, say, 50 acres of the U.P. I described what the situation is. In land. By that is meant that he has the right to Madras the situation in this respect is much take back into personal cultivation 50 acres of better, partly because the zamindari group is a land, of a certain type of land. The tenants on very, very small one. Moreover, whereas in the the landlord's land above his 50 acres get those U.P. the state government has committed itself occupancy rights. to the payment of compensation to the zamin- What happened as a result of the legislation dari group, in Madras the government has is this: that in giving the landlord the right to started to take over the land with virtually no resume possession of 50 acres of this certain payment for those zamindari rights. But I must type of land and 200 acres of another type of repeat that it is a small problem in Madras and land, thousands upon thousands of tenants that is why they were able to do it. have been dismissed from the land as tenants. So on one hand you have the zamindari That is, all the tenants on the land that he legislation that was enacted. Its consequences I took back are not tenants any more. They have described. The tenants are not particularly become agricultural laborers. Do I make that happy about it unless and until the government clear? It is true that the tenants on the land goes a step further and actually gives them the above 50 acres have those rights, but the point land and they become the real owners. is that the drafters of the law knew, for in- But the more significant aspects, again, is stance, that if you set the ceiling at 50 acres what the government is doing about improving there are relatively few landlords in the Punjab the conditions of cultivators as I described them who have 50 acres or more. In granting them a few minutes ago. For that purpose they have that right of resumption, the landlords immedi- enacted a number of laws in Punjab, in Madras, ately decided to evict the tenants because he is in Bihar at the present time, and the central afraid that if they remain on the land the ten- provinces. And incidentally, for this reason I ants will claim occupancy rights at a future went down to the Punjab to find out-this was date and some other legislation will come into my first experience as to what the government the picture. So the net effect of the legislation did in that particular province. There again, was that more tenants were evicted from the when you read the announcements and even land and have had to become agricultural work- when you read the legislation, you get the im- ers than tenants were given security rights. So pression that the government did a worthwhile as far as this very important aspect of the thing, namely, it has reduced rents by one-third, legislation is concerned, nothing was really ac- it has also given occupancy rights to the so- complished. In fact, more harm than good was called tenants-at-will who could have been done. evicted by the landlord at will and that is why As to the reduction in rent, it happens to be they are called tenants-at-will; and so the gov- a fiction for the simple reason that no rentals, ernment decided to give them certain rights in no reduction in rent can be enforced, unless the land, both by making them occupancy ten- you give security of tenure, unless you give the ants and also by reducing the rent. tenants real bargaining power. To the extent When I went down to the villages to find that they have no security of tenure, they can- out what the situation really is, I found out not have their rents reduced. Many and many a that the legislation is nothing but legislation tenant has told us-incidentally, in the pres- on paper. It is a mere blank as far as the village ence of the landlords-that they don't bother community is concerned. I will give you the about the rent reduction because the issue now reasons. It is not applicable; and, if it were is to be able to remain on the land. That is the applicable, then in effect the tenants would important issue because they hate like the perhaps be evicted in greater numbers as a re- dickens to become agricultural laborers for em- sult of that particular legislation than would ployment as casuals. And so the whole legisla- be given the right of remaining on the land. tion, by virtue of these particular provisions The reason is a simple one. The law states- which really have no relevance to the condi- I am not giving you the details, but just one tions as they exist in the Punjab, has resulted Comments on Land Reform in India 195 in the tenants having neither a reduction in with the Punjab, in Madras-I am sure many rent nor did they get security rights. And so we of you read it-you had a situation where the had to conclude that this type of legislation Communists have really penetrated into the vil- is mere paper legislation. It certainly effects lages. In the past elections some of the districts no changes other than the changes as 1 de- went almost completely to the Communists. scribed them and certainly does not benefit the They sent the greatest number of candidates to community as a whole, the Madras state legislature. The reasons-their Another very important aspect of this Pun- appeal is a very simple one. When you pay 80 jab situation which is reflected throughout percent rent and you bear all the costs of culti- India is that, even if the legislation were per- vation, and with the landlord performing no fectly sound, if the tenants were given rights special duties other than the ones I described, and the reduction in rent had real meaning, with the Congress government-and this is a there is really no way of enforcing it for an- story in itself-really not operating in the field other reason. There is no machinery in India, at all, there you have the perfect vacuum; and there is no state, which would enforce any legis- anyone can walk in and take it over if he has lation because the enforcers of the legislation the energy and the willingness to do it. The again are the so-called revenue officers, the tax Communists are very willing. They walked in collectors. The British have left an excellent and they took it over. tax collection system in India, and it is these To illustrate my point, I talked to a num- people who are entrusted with the job of im- ber of villagers in the presence of the revenue plementing the land reform legislation, whether officers. I asked one of the peasants, "What it is in the north in the Punjab or in Madras Would you do if the landlord were to refuse to in the south. accept this particular rental as ordained by the Who are the people who are enforcing the state legislature? To whom would you go for legislation? The people who are enforcing the redress?" The reply was very simple. "I would legislation are mainly people [whol them- go to the Red Flag Association." Everybody selves have an interest in land, a proprietary in- knows what the Red Flag Association is in the terest in land in one way or another. I spoke Madras and Tanjore districts, for it has a mem- with a local judge, a magistrate as they call bership of about 200,000. This is the group them there, who, incidentally, is the one to that fought for the tenant's rights, represented pass on all problems arising out of this legisla- him, are the spokesmen of the community. And tion. Well, it happens that he made no bones so you have in Madras the Communists as an about it. He is a man who owns a good deal of important part of the rural districts. And it land. He believes that the whole reform busi- was only the impact of that development-par- ness is essentially a bunch of nonsense. It is ticularly in the elections of the summer of against tradition, it is against custom, it goes 1952-that the Madras legislation was acted on against the financial structure of the community. with the intent of improving the lot of the He made it quite clear that he is not the man- farm community. his implication was very obvious-to go ahead And so they enacted an ordinance called the and to enforce that particular legislation. "Tanjore Ordinance." Basically it means that But you can go a step further down the the rents are reduced from 80 percent to 60 ladder and you will see that the rent collector percent. The tenant still continues to pay 60 himself comes of a relatively well-to-do family. percent of the [crop as} rent, and it is made He too is involved in the land, and I think it perfectly clear that the tenant is to continue to is too much to expect that these people, the en- pay all the costs of cultivation. That is the sole forcers, would be willing in a sense to legislate legislation in the state of Madras, which has themselves out of existence. They. really would 60 million people, 80 percent of whom are not behave like an "economic man." The result farmers. The legislation applies to only one dis- is that you have no machinery to go about en- trice-to the one which was worst affected by forcing the legislation about tenure at the pres- the penetration of the Communists. The state ent time in India. as a whole is not affected by it. This is the sum Taking another aspect of it and comparing total of the effort on the part of the Madras 196 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 government to improve the lot of the peas- the tenant who cultivates that land, and there antry. is no compensation for the land confiscated, It is, I think, quite obvious that it isn't going plus the fact that all tenants on the land below to stay (that wayl because the tenants are very 22 acres get occupancy rights, which means that dissatisfied with the provisions, even though they can inherit the land, they cannot be evicted they are an improvement. But the improvement from the land, they can even sell their right is not enough, really, to redress the balance. The to the land. Naturally the tenants are overjoyed. landlords, incidentally, are all [up] in arms The program is actually being carried out be- against it because they felt and still feel that cause the climate in Kashmir in this respect is any legislation infringes on their rights, and altogether different from the one that I en- they are dead set against it. countered in the other provinces. Also, there So you have a situation that, if it continues, are the benefits that the tenants get-of course is really a cold-war situation. You do not have they vary from tenant to tenant. If he is on the the open rebellion that you had in Madras two land of a big landlord, he becomes the owner or three years ago. The government settled that of the land. And this is definitely a great gain issue by jailing a good many Communists. I because he makes no payment for that land. was also distressed to see on the trip to Madras Others get a certain reduction in rent. Others -I don't think I told you about this-a number can get only the occupancy right in the land. of prisoners at certain stations, handcuffed, and I cannot go into any detail, but actually there they looked to me like the kind of peasants I are three types of gain made by the various had seen all over the state; and later on I in- tenants. quired and it turned out these are not really I did raise the question with them, "Isn't Communists but dissident peasants who were there any jealousy among you people? Here dissatisfied with the conditions as they are and your next-door neighbor succeeded in getting had something to say about it. In short, police all the land for nothing and you get only a measures in Madras are still the most signifi- small reduction in rent." They said, "This really cant measures as far as the government is con- doesn't bother us because we know that sooner cerned to allay discontent and distress in the or later we are going to own all the land of community. Kashmir." And this is something which pre- Also, as to enforcement you have roughly vails throughout the valley of Kashmir. the same situation. It is the same in Madras as How is it, then, that all the commitments on you have in the Punjab. I could go on repeating the part of Nehru, all the commitments on the this story state by state, but the picture is the part of the Congress Party, result in so little same. The legislation is totally inadequate. being done? And what I am going to say is Granted that the situation is a very difficult one, certainly off the record, although I have told that they would have had to step on the toes of this to the people in the planning commis- many an important landowner, the legislation sion... is inadequate and the enforcement provisions [Off the record.] really aren't there at the present time. VOICE: Wolf, how long would it take to ...? You find an entirely different situation when MR. LADEJINSKY: Very briefly. you go down to Kashmir, where I visited. There Here is the situation. I may have sounded the picture changes radically. It is a long story, pessimistic, perhaps unduly pessimistic, but the but I'll give you the gist of it. You have Sheikh point is this. I believe that there is still time Abdullah, the leader of the Kashmir govern- to do something, but, number one, no govern- ment, a very determined leader who set himself ment should be doing it. That is, no foreign to carry out a program which would give the government. No ECA, no Point IV. Such things land to the cultivating tenants. He is doing it, are completely out of the picture. If we do, but he is able to do it, basically, through one then I would say God help us. When we con- measure only; namely, he is in effect confis- sider the sensitiveness on the part of the Indian, cating the land. The law provides that the land- the kind of sensitiveness that I haven't en- lord can retain only a certain amount of land, countered in any other country-in any Asian which is 22 acres. Anything above that goes to country at any rate-then you must be doubly Commzents on Land Reform in India 197 sure and clear that in no way, form, or shape selves as a group that would study, write, pub- should U.S. agencies of one kind or another, lish, lecture, deal with all these issues. And they no matter how well intentioned, participate in have great standing. It is this group that could anything that might lead to a change in the create the kind of climate which is lacking and situation. the kind of climate which is needed in India It comes down to this: That a private agency at the present time. would have to do it. Now as to the question of And so, in the roughest, my suggestion what it might do. The difficulties I have men- would be for the foundation-and I might spell tioned throughout my talk really come down it out, for the Ford Foundation-to do some- to this, that the climate isn't there for the re- thing along that line. There is nothing particu- form at the present time. This for the reasons larly vague about it. It is a very concrete issue. I have indicated. However, I think a much We know the universities, who the people are. better climate could be created. I am not saying A group of this kind could be created. The that this alone will do it, but unquestionably necessary work could be done-and I might say much more can be done. The only ones who that in India it isn't so much a question of find- could do it, of course, are the Indians them- ing out what the conditions are. They know selves, what the conditions are. Nor is it a question of Now the question arises as to who are those finding out what constitutes a sound reform. Indians we are talking about? Remember this, They know very well. India has an enormously that no Indian official, regardless of how high a rich literature on the subject. If they wanted to, position, is really particularly concerned with they could easily establish a sound program. this issue. Some are. Some of the members of When the Planning Commission wanted to, the Planning Commission,are deeply concerned they wrote a section on land policies which of- about it, but the mere fact that they are offi- fers most of what is needed for a good pro- cials of the government prevents them from gram. But that is not the issue. But the group making very clear their interests in these prob- I propose could generate this kind of interest, lems outside the small government circle in follow up enforcement, know what is really which they operate. What is needed is aware- going on, bring it to the attention of the gov- ness on the part of the public at large that here ernment as no leader in the government could are these issues and something must be done possibly do. I would like to see the creation of about it. such a group within the universities who would I can't think of a better group than some of dedicate a good deal of their time to this one the outstanding Indian universities, the profes- basic proposition: how to keep the issue alive. sors and teachers in them, who could do that To know at the present time, let me tell you particular job. On my trip to Bombay I talked something which to me was unbelievable and about these matters with some of the people Ken knows about it. You take the central gov- who, incidentally, right now are very much on ernment of India, a government of 400 million the sidelines because the government doesn't people. How many people in the central govern- consult them. [Interjections as to who was seen ment, do you think, know or deal with land where.) But people who would like to do some- reform matters? I would like to take a vote thing about it are not in a position to do it around this table. in the sense that the government is not really Two persons, no more than that. It sounds concerned with their efforts. The business that unbelievable but it is true. we had in the United States, especially during VOICE: Are these two members of parlia- the New Deal days, when the government ment? would call in Professor A and B and C and all MR. LADEJINSKY: No, I am talking about the along the line for competent advice-that sort commission. You take the Ministry of Agri- of thing is pretty much absent in India. How- culture of India. There is one man. You know ever, they would like to do it. And it is this him, Ken. On the Planning Commission there group that I think should be and could be in- is another person who does know about it . .. duced, with little difficulty and, incidentally, another one, and . . . But actually, I couldn't with not too much money, to constitute them- find six people in the central government of 198 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 India who are in one way or another concerned you." He puts Mr. - on the spot and with this problem on a day-to-day basis. No Mr. says, "Well, that may be a good more than that, idea." And so I am invited by the Indian gov- VOICE: Would you answer this question? ernment. . Were your presence and your activities there Then I come and, of course, I realize the resented? You mentioned a moment ago that deal. As far as I was concerned, I wasn't par- this is something Point IV can't do, a foreign ticularly welcome. I was subjected-so it state can't do, and so forth. Yet you were there seemed to me-for the first two weeks essen- and you did a tremendous thing in developing tially to a cross-examination as to my intel- this report. lectual standing, as to how much I know about MR. LAD-JINSKY: I am afraid you are mak- a chapter of English history, whether I can turn ing assumptions which are really not warranted. a phrase, whether I have intellectual ideas- The point is this, and I think Ken will support matters of that kind. And after I had apparently me on this. You hit a very, very touchy sub- passed the examination, their attitude some- ject as far as I personally am concerned. Num- what shifted. But one had to be forever careful ber one, when I came to India, my opinion was not to recommend anything. I recommended that the Indian government wanted me there. nothing. No recommendations of any kind ex- In effect, the Indian government didn't want cept in terms of discussing experiences here, me to come to India. I found out how these there, and other places, when certain things fall things happen. Mr. Chester Bowles met [a cer- as they will and some of the members of the tain high Indian official] at a cocktail party. commission picked them up here and there. He said, "You know, Mr. - , we under- Later on these might be incorporated in a re- stand you have a land reform problem. We port. Only in that sense, and in no other sense, know so-and-so. He might be of some help to were there recommendations.... 22. A Comment on the Report of the Ford Foundation Conference on Land Tenure Ladejinsky's comments on the report of the Ford Foundation's 1952 Conference on Land Tenure take the form of a letter to Carl Spaeth, director, Division of Overseas Activities of the foundation, who had requested them. His response from Tokyo was dated March 23, 1953. It contributes significantly to our understanding of his views on external assistance. I HAVE YOUR NOTE OF MARCH 9, and I hasten point, and the conclusion that we call it "land to comply with your request for a comment on reform" is well taken. I am less certain about the report of the New York Conference on part III and, as you will note in a subsequent Land Tenure. I am not certain that what fol- paragraph, I should like to see some modifica- lows will ease your labors, but I assure you that tions in part IV. I am not trying to add to them. It appears to me that part III is too drawn- I find that the report is a very good sum- out and academic and that some of the issues mary of the proceedings, and this applies par- raised may lead to misinterpretations of the ticularly to part II and to some sections of part character of land reform movements, which III. Part I, "Do We Call It Land Reform?" is a should be considered as they are rather than as bit discursive, but it finally does get to the we wish them to be. The ten principles of land Report of the Ford Foundation Conference on Land Tenure 199 reform policy set forth in the report are essen- emplify that; but point I is the truly significant tially correct, logical deductions, primarily as a one, for most everything else hinges upon it. Western agricultural economist conceives them. The writer of the report is indeed right when They tend to minimize the economic, political, he states that "Wherever there is a rccognition and social realities which determine the manner of a real need for land reform there may be an in which the hunger for land is being satisfied opportunity for sympathetic and competent now and will be, increasingly so, in the years counsel and assistance in making orderly ad- immediately ahead. It would seem, therefore, justments, with a minimum social cost." This that the land policy as set forth in part III is not is where outside assistance might come in. But necessarily germane to known land reforms be- "The General Issues" section as a whole could ginning with the one achieved by French peas- stand drastic condensation, partly for the rea- ants under the French Revolution and ending sons stated and chiefly because in its present with the Japanese reform of more recent date. form it tends to obscure the real issue, which In short, the principles constitute something is whether to aid reforms already in being or akin to a perfectionist scheme, upon the fulfill- actively under consideration. ment of which no land reform waited in the Since the main purpose of the report is to past or will wait in the future. help the officers of the foundation determine a The report should make clear that in present- course of action, the content of the entire re- day Asia the landless peasants will in all proba- port could stand considerable trimming for the bility acquire ownership of the land even sake of greater succinctness; in addition, it though their native lands may lack "trained pro- should be so modified as to bring out in sharp fessional personnel, purposive educational sys- relief some of the features which typify the tems, skilled laborers," and so forth. Similarly, agrarian reform movement in Asia. With re- and whether we like it or not, it is well for the spect to the latter, the first item is that wide- foundation to be aware of this crucial point, it spread ownership of land among tenants is a is not true that "every land reform must deal desirable condition for economic, political, and with the problems of acquiring the land, and social reasons; such often-mentioned arguments if from private owners, of compensation," or that it might or would result in a decline of that the "purchase" terms for peasants involve agricultural production are essentially not valid, not only the essential rates of peasant savings and they could be very well omitted. Second, and investments (and the consequences for the that despite the opposition of the landlords or total rates of savings) but also the peasants' re- of governments dominated by them, the trans- lation to the financial responsibilities of the fer of ownership is inevitable; what is in ques- entire economy. The subject of this report is not tion is the pace-quicker in a country where land reform in the United States but in the the government is bent on implementing a re- backward areas where such a concept hardly form, slower where a government has neither applies. In Kashmir where "land to the land- the strength nor the desire to activate the issue. less" made notable progress, no one troubled Third, that the reform movement is a revolu- about compensation or rates of peasant savings; tionary one even though landlords' heads do not essentially the same happened in Japan; India roll and noblemen's nests are not set afire. The is likely to follow suit if the tenants are to acquisition of the land is not and will not take acquire land; and the chances are that the peas- place in the spirit of the due process of law as ants of Iran will acquire the crown land with- understood and practiced in the Western world. out paying for it, despite the elaborate system More specifically, the present trend is in the of payments we helped to set up and despite direction of depriving the landlords of their our own position that "The prompt and faith- land for relatively little or no compensation at ful payment of the purchase debts is con- all. Fourth, while the officers of the foundation sidered . . . to be absolutely essential to the suc- should be fully cognizant of the confiscatory cess of the program." character of the movement, they should be Some of the principles in part III are emi- equally aware of the fact that in Asia the in- nently sound in the sense that they are relevant fringement upon the concept of private prop- to reform efforts in Asia. Items 1, 2, and 3 ex- erty at the top strengthens the very same con- 200 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 cept at the base of the social pyramid where it The above doesn't decry the fact that a is weakest. The economic and political corol- private agency should give financial assistance laries which flow from this change are too obvi- for such purposes as the creation of a favorable ous to require further elucidation. If I appear reform climate, for helping gather basic land to stress too much the fact that the movement tenure data, or to stimulate relevant research in is revolutionary and not reformist, I have in the country in question. What I question is the mind possible criticisms leveled against the nature of the role we assign ourselves, based on foundation; I recall the time when General the mistaken theory that we have the answers MacArthur was very closely questioned by an (see i, ii, iii, and iv under (G) p. 22) and important American public figure whether the that the mainspring of our expertness will come Japanese land reform was in consonance with through research. You will note that every American notions about private property and item under (G) is research and yet more re- free enterprise. search. To repeat, the biggest single factor that Assuming that after an examination of the handicaps land reform is the absence of the pros and cons the foundation decides in favor climate which spells the difference between ac- of aiding land reform movements, I wish to tion and inaction. But I doubt that the answers touch upon the character into which it might lie in the overemphasis on research and in the evolve. Part IV of the report outlines various unwarranted assumption of our own omni- courses of action, and they are quite in line with science. A good "salesman" or two might be our exchange of views in New York. However, used to greater advantage. the four guiding principles seem to tend in At one point the report states, correctly, that favor of a kind of assistance which is not of we have only a modest role to perform in the crucial importance to Asian countries. The prin- land reform field. I would add that that role de- ciples imply that we know a great deal and rives not so much from our expertness, which would-be recipient countries very little. My is indeed meagre, but rather from the financial own experience tells me that once a govern- aid-even if limited-we might be in a posi- ment is determined to carry out changes in land tion to extend under favorable circumstances. tenure arrangements, our aid cannot but be It behooves us therefore to act accordingly. limited. The reforms have been slow in coming, From my point of view this means that the not because of the fears on the part of govern- foundation should eschew "nerve centers," big ments that they don't know how to formulate programs, special land reform divisions, or any- policies, administer, execute, and evaluate them thing that might imply that on the subject of but primarily because they don't want reforms land reform we are big time, eager to teach the in the first place. When Sheikh Abdullah of people of Asia how to reform their land. The Kashmir decided it was time for peasants to get mistakes committed in this regard by our tech- the land, he did a pretty good job with a nical assistance programs (including FAo and limited staff working with a peasantry which other UN organizations) are ample warning to is 95 percent illiterate. We know too little a private agency not to repeat them. The fact is about land arrangements in Asia to presume that the land reform issue in Asia is at once that we can determine policies and so forth, so complex and delicate that the outsiders must The analogy of an American land tenure ex- approach it with caution, making haste slowly. pert service with that of the financial experts For these reasons the recommendations of the of the World Bank does not hold any water. report should lay stress on what can, rather Every country in Asia has an articulate group than what should, be done, and a good deal of with knowledge of the country's agrarian prob- exploratory work in the field appears to be the lems and ways of solving them. The difficulty prerequisite. Until much more knowledge and is that often they choose to ignore them. To be experience are acquired, the report should rec- of real aid we could do no better than try to ommend an operation on a piecemeal basis, persuade this group that it is perhaps later each request for financial assistance judged on than they think. This is where under propitious its own merits. Our fund of practical expert- circumstances we could, with subtlety and ex- ness is all too small to offer that as our main perience, render useful service. stock-in-trade. I feel rather strongly that land The Status of the Land Reform Program in India 201 reform institutes and such, underwritten by the Another reason for giving that type of finan- foundation, are a matter for the future-if at cial assistance to India is to safeguard the sum all. total of the foundation's investments (and I don't believe that assistance to the land re- TCA's) in the community development proj- form program of a particular country is within ects. It is no secret that thoughtful Indians and the purview of the report, but I cannot refrain Americans in that country are deeply concerned from mentioning India. Here is an instance over the fact that these projects are built on the where the government is deeply involved in it, old land tenure arrangements, which is not a but progress is slow. One of the reasons is the solid base. This explains the disparaging re- failure of the university people to put their marks of many a tenant about the community shoulders to the wheel and thereby help create project. On more than one occasion I listened the climate so often mentioned in this letter to such remarks as: "What is there in your and without which the process cannot be project for me?" Pretty little, if the lion's share speeded up. India also represents an instance of the increased output remains in the same where the initiative for assistance comes from Shands. If that condition should remain un- the central government; we are not drumming up trade, as it were-a very important condi- changed, then our efforts will fall far short of tion for the soundness of our aid. I therefore their goals. That is what I mean by safeguard- repeat the plea I made in New York that finan- ing our investment, and that is why I am tak- cial assistance be given to a few selected uni- ing the liberty of bringing up the subject once versities in India in order to articulate the again. agrarian issues for the benefit of willing and I am afraid I have been too discursive, but unwilling state governments there. And in in justification I can say that I read the report India, no American, however knowledgeable, carefully and tried to treat it with the serious- could do that kind of job. ness it deserves. 23. The Status of the Land Reform Program in India Ladejinsky made another visit to India from his Tokyo base to assess the progress of land reform in the summer of 1954. His report, he notes with regret, was necessarily based, for want of time, on discussions and reading; "of field observations there were relatively few." This perhaps explains the sense of restrained optimism one notes in the piece. Although Ladejinsky sees all too clearly the inadequacies of both legislation and enforcement, he is obviously pleased by the government's attempts to prod the state governments into more effective action and finds "the mere raising of the tenancy issue into the open ... a positive development. The trend in India is toward reform; once begun, it cannot be stopped." He insists that security of tenure and reasonable rents rather than land ceilings and redistribution are "what the struggle should be about," that substantial progress will require time and patience as well as effort, that measures of land reform in the Indian setting can by themselves achieve but limited results, and that the Indian universities can and should "render a signal service in the field of reform developments." There is space here for only the conclusions, which Ladejinsky presents at the outset of his report. This report, dated August 4, 1954, was transmitted to the U.S. Department of State with Dispatch 236, dated August 18, 1954. 202 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 Introduction so sharply drawn, and, for this reason, the half-hearted concessions so grudingly THIs REPORT ATTEMPTS TO MAKE a brief as- granted. sessment of the current status of the land prob- 4. One segment of the program, although not lem in India. The reporting officer's stay here the most important one, the elimination of has been all too short (three weeks) to permit the zamindari land rights, has been com- him a more thorough analysis of developments pleted in some states and is under way in since early 1953, when he left India after a pro- others. This program, as all other reform longed study of the problem. The subsequent programs, suffers from acts of commission paragraphs are based primarily on talks with and omission but, above all, from explicit Clifford C. Taylor, agricultural counselor, Amer- and implicit promises some of which can- ican Emabssy, New Delhi; officials of the not but fall short of realization. However, Planning Commission and of the Ministry of on balance, the zamindari abolition is an Food and Agriculture; revenue officers of the important step in the right direction. states of Uttar Pradesh and PEPSU; and on the 5. The other, by far the most important part perusal of relevant material, published and un- of the program, relating to the measures de- published. Of field observations there were rela- signed to improve the well-being of the rively few. Considering the fact that the ob- tenants, is under way, but very haltingly. server attaches great importance to firsthand If the volume of legislation be a measuring information gathered in the field, the discus- rod of achievement, India would be in the sions must be judged in the context of this forefront of such movements. The fact is, limitation. however, that the legislation is inadequate in important respects, while the enforce- inent is riddled with a "thousand gaps." 6. The government of India is becoming Conclusions increasingly aware of these gaps and is prodding the state governments into more The principal conclusions which emerge from concerted action. This is not an easy task the reexamination of the reform program are since the progress of the program calls for as follows: avoidance of political compromises leading to questionable economic results and the 1. Despite the sharp criticism levelled against creation of a "climate" for the effective en- the land reform program in India on the forcement of the legislation. The states ground of meager accomplishments, the which are the legislators and enforcers program is making progress. would have to rise above the political bias 2. If progress is to be judged in terms of the of their legislative bodies in order to es- accomplishment of the sum total of the chew the first and attain the second. This goals enunciated by the Congress Party or stage will not be reached in a day. the Planning Commission's five-year plan, 7. The sharp contrast between appearances the achievement is limited; if, on the other and realities need not obscure the fact that hand, progress is to be judged from the there is solid merit even in this admittedly point of view of the existing balance of po- very "spotty" program. The mere raising litical power and prevailing economic con- of the tenancy issue into the open, let ditions, the program is moving forward. alone attempting to clothe it in a legal 3. The impatience with the slow pace of framework, however limited in character India's economic development stems from and emasculated in application, is a posi- the unwarrantedly exaggerated notions as tive development. The trend in India is to- to what can be accomplished in that coun- wards reform; once begun it cannot be try within a short period of time. This stopped. And a start has been made. fallicy has special bearing on the land re- 8. The philosophic bases of the reform and form programs, for in no field has the issue the enormous body of legislation are replete between the "haves" and "have-nots" been with double-talk about land purchase The Status of the Land Reform Program in India 203 schemes and ceilings on land ownership, numbers are rising year by year. For this goals which are hardly attainable and which reason, without accelerating the rate of at the same time tend to divert attention economic development in agriculture and from the points that truly matter. Stripped industry, measures of land reform will to their essentials, the fundamental issue achieve but limited results. Industrial de- is not so much land ownership as security of velopment is particularly important as new tenure. The cultivator does want a piece of jobs could be created to siphon off some land that he can call his own, but since he agricultural labor and thus make a dent in must pay for it even under the reform, for the vicious circle of more people,less land, the vast majority this is unattainable. The and growing poverty. This, however, does sound alternative, therefore, is effective not in any way argue against the validity government action that would leave him of reform measures; the issue in India is on the land undisturbed, paying a reason- not one of solving the rural problem, but able rental and making the most of the of palliatives capable of wiping out the residue. Currently this is what the struggle worst features which condemn the farmers should be about, and it is in this connec- to a below-subsistence level of existence. tion that the reform legislation most needs 11. One of the many regrettable aspects of the propping up. lagging reform movement is the failure of 9. The land reform program in India has a the individuals and groups most capable in long road ahead and a hard row to hoe. this field to be articulate concerning reform The class of people whose rights and au- problems. With but few exceptions the thority the reforms seek to restrain is a Indian universities, for example, are very class which has deep roots in society. It is much on the sidelines, at best in the roles the recruiting base for the intelligentsia of impartial and inactive observers. They and its members play an important part in need not become propagandists for the the universities, government offices, press, land reform cause; students of the problem and every important sector of public life. would be more to the point, for India suf- Persuasion and pressure may reconcile them fers from a lack of information on the ele- to the seemingly inevitable sharing of prop- mental yet basic features of postreform erty rights in the context of India's mass agricultural economy. This applies to pre- poverty and underdevelopment. But this reform agriculture as well; despite all the will not be achieved in a year or two; the talk about fixing ceilings on agricultural impatient ones would be well advised to holdings as part of future reform measures, steel themselves for a decade or so of pa- no data are available on the size of land- tient waiting. The results should prove to holdings and land ownership. The first be rewarding. census is only now in preparation. Above 10. When that time comes-that is, when legis- all, the effects of the reform legislation al- lation is soundly drawn up and the imple- ready enacted can be only surmised through reforms by personal observations because only a few menrrio wel cariedouttheof the twenty-eight states of the union of themselves will not have solved the riddle Id ae takig t e t e ow of obetrliving for the farm comniy India are taking the trouble now of finding of better l f the arm community. out what they are. To be effective, this work The poverty of the peasant is a formidable of many years' duration must be done in enough problem; far more formidable is India and by Indian agricultural econo- the poverty of the 40 to 50 million landless mists, sociologists, and political scientists. farmers (agricultural laborers and their It is a tailor-made job for the universities. families) who have no stake in land what- In doing that, they could render a signal ever and with whom the reforms are con- service in the field of reform developments, cerned only indirectly. There simply is not which, incidentally, might also serve as a enough land to satisfy all claimants whose basis for shaping future reform policies. 204 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 24. Advancing Human Welfare I have already attributed a great significance, in my introduction to this book, to this letter to Kenneth Iverson of the Ford Foundation, as a broad expression of Ladejinsky's views. The letter, undated, would have been written sometime in November or December 1954. In transmitting to Ladejinsky the two copies of it he had requested, Iverson's secretary noted: "For us, it was a case of having another run made because your paper had been so much in demand by staff members here." No further comment is required, except to urge the reader not to pass this statement by. THE CONTENTS OF YOUR LETTER of October our aid to these countries is lacking or waste- 13. 1954, have been very much on my mind ful, the Communists will do the "job in their and a subject of deep concern to me. It is obvi- own way, and to the irreparable loss of the ous that you did some soul-searching before you West and of the United States;" on the nature committed your thoughts to paper, and I assure of the assistance practiced to date with a sug- you that my delay in commenting on it was gestion for a more inclusive program extending not for lack of soul-searching on my part as to the realm of measures of social significance; well. But I must admit that you set before me on the nature of the more specific problems re- a formidable task. The subject we are talking lating to the matter (and of possible interest about-even if not expressly stated-is the to the foundation) such as land tenure and sum total of what constitutes human welfare in credit; and, finally, a discussion of the proper the broadest sense of the term and, above all, kind of personnel and proper approach in our how to advance its cause. The task of how to relations with underdeveloped countries. achieve this is the more difficult because "The Much of what I have to say will sound to critical problems which obstruct advancement you like a repetition of well-known truisms, in human welfare and progress toward demo- but it may help me to explore more fully the cratic goals are today social rather than physical issues under consideration. Naturally, I shall in character. The problems and opportunities be the happier if some of the presentation also of our time arise out of man's relation to man makes sense to you. rather than his relations to physical world." I shall have occasion to return to these meaningful words which I culled from the "Re- The Setting and the Magnitude port of the Trustees of the Ford Foundation," of the Problem September 27, 1950. I am citing them here because they are germane to what I shall have The history of the more advanced areas of the to say in subsequent pages. I am not certain, world has shown that good government, elec- though, whether their content will meet your tric power, transportation, and the social ser- needs. I am not setting forth a program for the vices are the four primary elements for economic foundation in the sense suggested in the first and social progress. A high standard of living part of the next to the last paragraph of your and so much else that distinguishes the ad- letter. Instead, I propose to put down such vanced from the backward countries are their thoughts as I have on the setting and the mag- corollaries. The underdeveloped countries we nitude of the problem which we face in under- concern ourselves with comprise two-thirds of developed countries; on the real danger that, if the world population and are characterized by Advancing Human Welfare 205 mass poverty, which is chronic and not the re- ing of all classes of the people to unprecedented sult of some temporary misfortune, and by obso- levels. They are awakening to the realization lete methods of production and social organiza- that there is hope for change and improvement. tion, which means that the poverty is not They are being told that they can produce more entirely due to poor natural resources and hence with new instruments of production and that could presumably be lessened by methods al- the fruits of their labor should be more equally ready proved in other countries. Moreover, an shared. There is greater awareness that it is underdeveloped country often has an under- possible for them to be rid of disease, epi- developed government. It lacks an effective demics, and illiteracy and that they have a civil service system, an effective budgetary con- right to some education provided by their gov- trol, a sound fiscal policy, and, naturally, it ernment. These new ideas are only beginning lacks an efficient governmental structure. In to take shape, but they are powerful and call short, most underdeveloped countries lack al- for translation into reality. most entirely the traditions, institutions, habits Part of the setting and the magnitude of the of thought, and experiences which are essential problem is the social order prevailing in the to modern democratic society. That indeed is underdeveloped countries. Government au- the principal political and psychological reason thority is controlled by the very forces likely to why Communism is a much greater threat in be adversely affected by progressive economic Asia than in Europe. The natural defenses and social development. In country after coun- against Communism that a tradition of indi- try these groups, largely landlord groups, are vidual dignity, the rights of man, and of de- determined to maintain the status quo. They rnocracy set up in different degrees in various hardly benefit the rural community, and they countries are yet to be created in Asia. This are not proving at all effective against Commu- goes a long way to explain why the Russian nist penetration. They are, in effect, the cre- Communists succeeded in seizing power in ators of a revolutionary situation. To them, the Russia and why the Chinese Communists met very words "reform," "change," and "conces- with the same results in one of the most under- sion" partake of the devil; and yet without their developed countries in the world. consent, no progressive organization can func- Poverty, hunger, disease, and the lack of tion. It would be a mistake, however, to single opportunity for self-development that these them out as the sole obstacle to progress on imply have been the lot of the overwhelming the ground that they aim to hold on to their majority of the people in underdeveloped coun- privileges regardless of the impending changes. tries. What is new about this poverty is that The situation is more complex, partly because it has become a source of discontent, and an even among these conservatives there are indi- overworked and overexploited common man viduals with progressive proclivities, willing to who for centuries was inertly miserable is now learn and to be persuaded, and, above all, be- alertly miserable. The peasants of Asia have cause the traditional climate-nurtured in an never been satisfied with this state of affairs; age-old culture in the broadest sense of the but in the main, until very recently, the con- word--dulls the interest in social and economic servatism and inertia of the farmer and his in- reform of the people as a whole. grained feudal subservience to the state and to While the ruling groups are unwitting and his landlord kept the pot from boiling over. unwilling allies of Communism, there are also Now the forces that keep the peasant within those consciously accepting the deceptively well-defined bounds are breaking down under simple solutions of the Communist line. They the impact of what has been aptly termed "the come not from the poorest sections of the revolution of rising expectations." people but from middle class intelligentsia. In The "shrinking" of the world in recent years this respect the Communist leadership in the has made these people conscious of the exis- underdeveloped countries of Asia is cut of the tence of a way of life different from their own. same cloth as the early leadership of the Com- They have been brought into contact with more munist Party of Russia or China. From my own advanced countries where scientific and techno- observations in Asia, members of the intel- logical progress has raised the standard of liv- lectual proletariat (college graduates, for ex- 206 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 ample, all dressed up with no place to go) current efforts to modernize, the underdevel- swell the ranks of the Communist chorus out oped countries will lean towards the West, of sheer frustration induced by lack of suitable adapting its technology and political ideas to occupations, lack of sense of participation, and suit their special needs or, instead, accept the no promise of leadership thought to be their Communist promises and eventually the Com- due. The dynamism of the oversimplified Com- munist system. It is therefore no exaggeration munist "solution" is alone sufficient to recruit to say that the existence of the Western, demo- them for its cause. cratic world will depend upon the choice, free Fortunately, there are other groups and indi- or accidental, of the underdeveloped countries viduals eager to use their talents towards mod- between following in the Communist path or ernization of the setting we are talking about. proceeding with Western aid. They are found in the academic halls; in the Raymond T. Moyer, in his reexamination liberal professions; as well as among the few of Point IV in Asia ("A Re-look At Point Four spokesmen for the farmers, the progressive in Asia"), states very succinctly the problems traders, and industrialists. They are the ones confronting the underdeveloped countries. to be sought out and encouraged as part of the "Their fundamental problem," he writes, "is to process of assisting the underdeveloped coun- eliminate the conditions that make Commu- tries to achieve new goals. Given an oppor- nism possible, and that would be a potential tunity, their contributions are assured. source of danger whether Communism existed or not. The essence of their problem, in other words, is to bring about the progress on which depend their continuing freedom, the achieve- Western or Communist Assistance ment of their rightful place among the nations, to Underdeveloped Areas and the welfare of their people." The West has a vital role to play in achiev- The mere desire for change is undermining the ing such goals because the future course of the old order. The passivity and fatalism of the underdeveloped countries, in cooperation with masses of Asia (or in other roughly similarly the West, is a necessary part of the conditions situated areas) are beginning to yield to the for Western survival. By the same token, how desire for higher standards and the determina- soon and by what means Asia deals with its tion to acquire them. Industrial technology has problems successfully will determine what already found its way into underdeveloped Asia's position will be in the struggle between countries, and fundamental changes in the po- dictatorship and democracy. Equally true is litical and social structures of the underdevel- that the economic, political, and social struc- oped areas are unavoidable. ture with which Asia will eventually emerge What is of vital importance to the West is will be that structure which comes nearest to not the inevitable stresses and strains accom- giving a satisfactory answer to problems obtain- panying the economic development efforts but ing in the underdeveloped societies. the general direction of the change from feudal or semifeudal to something different. It is per- tinent in this connection to inquire as to the source of basic ideas in human relations which What Kind of a Program-Technical must shape the technological changes. Will the Assistance or Technical Assistance Plus? process of change proceed along Western or Communist lines? The Communists have al- The point has been made that an underdevel- ready exploited this type of situation and, as in oped country often has an underdeveloped gov- the case of China, turned it into a central politi- ernment. This is another way of saying that it is cal issue and thereby seized political power in not generally true that a country is backward that country. in some single phase of its life. Low literacy, From the point of view of the West and poor health, low agricultural productivity, and the preservation of its most cherished values, it lack of industrial development all go hand in is of the utmost importance whether, in their hand. Advancing Human Welfare 207 A program cannot concentrate on some par- cess of the program of the underdeveloped ticular element of development without run- countries. The conclusion is warranted that ning the risk that it may be rendered useless by "The needs of underdeveloped countries for failure to carry on parallel developments in better techniques are as great in the social as other fields. Developments along some line may in the mechanical field." actually create serious problems in other fields. A program for underdeveloped countries There must be some balance in the elements must, of course, begin with economic develop- comprising a program intended to aid an under- ment. The physical resources they do have (and developed country. This does not presuppose a good many of them are richly endowed) that an aid program must be all-inclusive, but must be placed at the service of the people with it presumes that if a serious effort is to be made an eye towards a higher standard of living. to revise the standard of living of a backward Part of a successful economic process is the area, the program must not be limited to what creation of institutions for the utilization of is commonly known as technical or economic the energy, skills, and character of the people. assistance. But if, as is correctly contended, even successful Not all realities are economic, and in the economic development cannot by itself create underdeveloped countries many of the motiva- a democratic society, then a program which also tions behind the drive for improvement are addresses itself to the sum total of human wel- social, political, and psychological. There is no fare is imperative. What the ingredients of gainsaying the importance of a rise in indus- such an overall program should be, in addition trial or agricultural output, but it does not by to a higher standard of living, was outlined in itself meet the needs and it is not at all certain the "Report of the Trustees of the Ford Founda- that achievements in technical assistance will tion" (September 27, 1950) with reference to automatically or necessarily insure a greater the achievement of "democratic strength, sta- sharing of economic welfare, greater sharing of bility, and vitality." The report states that "To political power, free public schools, the emer- work toward these objectives means attack upon gence of representative governments, and other many subsidiary problems, all interrelated, all developments which denote progress in de- urgent": mocracy. Technical assistance may or may not The need for governments, national and in- foster such results; the industrial development ternational to be more truly responsive to the in the West has in most cases created the people, to be more efficient and at the same climate for a healthy democratic spirit, but the time to be grounded more firmly in the ac- sudden transplanting of industrialism in a radi- tive participation of its citizens: The need cally different environment does not at all argue to achieve a relatively stable and more for a similar outcome. Its matter-of-factness healthy economic system with greater oppor- cannot by itself fire men's vision and stir men's runity for personal initiative, advancement, minds and hearts. The real test of technical and individual satisfactions; the need to de- assistance is what happens to men's minds. The velop more able and public-spirited leaders nonmaterialistic appeal for the change in social in all fields of responsibility and endeavor; institutions has always been the more powerful the need to improve our educational system weapon. Even well-conceived and well-carried for the better development of such leaders out programs of technical assistance in the eco- and for the preparation of men and women nomic field may not succeed without successful everywhere for the increasing tasks of citi- modification of educational, public administra- zenship and for the conduct of more pur- tion, and other institutions bound up with eco- zesi and forteonduc omrept nomic development. For this reason, narrow concentration on material output, with its over- The authors of the report may not have spe- emphasis on "know-how," typical of Point IV cific reference to Asia or other undeveloped and most other U.S. government programs, runs regions, but it is significant to note that the risk of not providing the people of the Eugene Staley in his "The Nature of Under- underdeveloped countries with the lasting developed Countries," written in 1954, comes values which in the long run determine the suc- to the same conclusions in his choice of objec- 208 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 tives of a successful program. These objectives, underdeveloped areas are peasants. Agriculture, strikingly similar to those of the foundation not industry, is the pivot of their lives in all its report, even if differently worded, are: principal manifestations. Industry has made but adequate livin a small dent in the character of Asia, notwith- 1' standing the industrialization of Japan, the oil 2. A sense of security, gushers of the Middle East, the tin mines of 3. A sense of freedom and participation, Malaya and Siam, and the jute and cotton mills 4. A sense of belonging, 5. A sense of purpose, and of India. The factory may bring material ad- 6. Creative opportunities. vancement to the Asians some day, but that day is in the future. The heart of the problem Every Asian will buy these program objec- of Asia today lies in the countryside. It is on tives. Every Asian, however illiterate, con- the farm where solutions must be sought and sciously or unconsciously aspires to a measure found. of this welfare which consists of better living The threat inherent in the rural problem conditions, better health, better social status or both to Asia and the rest of the world was well greater equality of status, better government, stated by Kipling when he penned the follow- greater participation in local or national affairs, ing lines describing the life of an Indian and of a host of other values which spell out the farmer: ideas of human welfare and of "the dignity of His speech is of mortgaged bedding, man. Such objectives, outlined by the founda- On his kine he borrows yet, tion in 1950, may have appeared at the time a At his heart is his daughter's wedding, bit utopian, achievable at best only in the dim In his eye foreknowledge of debt, and distant future. But in view of the shape of He eats and hath indigestion, things in the underdeveloped countries in 1954, He toils and he may not stop; they have acquired a sense of reality and ur- His life is a long-drawn question gency. The survival of the underdeveloped Between a crop and a crop. countries along Western lines dictates the ap- plication of these objectives, for progress in Kipling was not one to neglect his poetic democratic techniques and ideals is a basic license, but his picture is not actually over- prerequisite for economic assistance. drawn in hopelessness. For in 1954 the Asian peasant is hardly any better off than in the late nineties when Kipling wrote. A Neglected Objective- Land ownership in most underdeveloped Land Tenure Arrangements countries is the source of economic wealth, po- litical power, and social prestige. Conversely, It has been my observation in India that the the millions upon millions of peasants who own foundation is attempting to carry out a pro- no land enjoy none of those attributes. The gram based on objectives described here. My relationship between the man who owns the familiarity with the work of the foundation in land and the tenant (or land laborer) who Burma, Pakistan, and the Middle East is meager works the land is too well known to require and secondhand, but I am under the impression detailed description. Suffice it to say that in that, taken as a whole, the foundation aims to most cases rack-renting is the order of the day, shape a many-sided plan for sound economic the right to till the land is minimal or non- and social development. Yet, one important existent, usury is prevalent, the incentive to aspect has not been given the consideration it increase agricultural production is lacking, and deserves. I have reference to the crux of the political discontent exploited by the Commu- agrarian problem, namely, the land tenure ar- nists is inevitable and is actually taking place. rangements and how the foundation can assist Some of this was epitomized in a personal the peasant of the underdeveloped countries in observation in a Pakistani village in the Pun- securing the most democratic of assets: freedom jab. Most of the families who resided in the to farm. village were tenants of a single absentee land- Four-fifths of the people who populate the lord. Upon examination it turned out that yields Advancing Human Welfare 209 had been declining. I asked the assembled vil- win popular support, and popular support in lagers for the reason. "Our land," replied one Asia is peasant support or nothing. An owner of the tenants, "is like a pitcherful of water cultivator or a reasonably satisfied tenant would from which we keep pouring out while nothing acquire a stake in society. He would guard that is being poured in." "Why don't you pour some- society against extremism. Private property thing in," I asked. "How can we?" countered would be strengthened where it is weakest-at the tenant. "The landlord's share is so high that the huge base of the social pyramid. The we would benefit very little." The tenant had chances are good that in that event the common no incentive to improve the land. The landlord man of Asia would become a staunch opponent received too much and the tenant too little. of Communist economics and politics-not The changes in land tenure arrangements necessarily to favor the interests of the West will enhance the political power of the peasants but simply because his own interests would lie and very possibly endow them with rights and in the same direction. So much for the reasons responsibilities resembling those of the rural why the issue is important and why a founda- people in a democratic society. On the other tion concerned with human welfare should in- hand, failure to come to grips with the problem clude it within the scope of its activities. is likely to advance the cause of Communism in the countryside. The significance of the latter development cannot be overestimated. The Communists are exploiting this issue What Part Can and Should and they place it in the center of Asian politics the Foundation Play? where it belongs. The peasants living on the ragged edge of penury are easy marks for the The foundation is already engaged in rural Communists. The peasants know nothing and improvement work through community devel- care less about "Marxism, Leninism, and Stalin- opment projects. Sounder land tenure arrange- ism," and they are surely not eager for collec- ments, including sounder farm taxation and tivization. The Communists, however, promise farm credit systems, would help to meet urgent them not collectivization as it exists in the So- needs without which a rise in agricultural pro- viet Union but land with which the peasants duction is but a half measure. How should the can do as they please. And the peasants, in foundation treat such issues? The subsequent sheer despair, believe the promises, not know- paragraphs relate to land tenure (with special ing that they will eventually be betrayed, their reference to India) because, while credit and land nationalized, and they themselves herded taxation are indeed important in the rejuvena- into collective farms at the point of a bayonet. tion of the agricultural economy of Asia, the The potency of the Communist battle cry of focal point of attack must begin with the land "Land and liberty" has not been lost on all the tenure systems. leaders of Asia. India's needs for technical farm Land reform, unlike technical agricultural improvements are overwhelming and Nehru, improvements, is a highly controversial issue. for example, is well aware of it. But he is just The landlords are bound to resist it and are as conscious of the urgency for a concurrent doing so in countries where such reforms are land reform program which will give the Indian in the making. The class of people whose rights peasant an incentive to improvement and a and authority the reforms seek to restrain is a sense of social responsibility. Nehru's motiva- class which has deep roots in society. It is the tion is economic, social, and political: "If we recruiting base for the intelligentsia and its don't do it," I heard him say, "they will." And members play an important role in the universi- "they" are the Communists. He stressed, there- ties, government offices, press, and every impor- fore, that the land tenure problem must be tant sector of public life. Foreign "interference" placed "in the center of the piece." may add fuel to the already burning issue by an- If this reform problem is dealt with and with tagonizing not only the conservatives but also reasonable success, it would become a powerful the pro-reform supersensitive nationalists. political instrument. The native governments The above may be true (although not as a friendly to the West would be more likely to rule) when a foreign government espouses 210 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 controversial reforms, and this would be doubly governor of Formosa decided to put through so if the implementation of such reforms were the land reform program on the island-some- a condition of aid. The stigma of interference thing the Nationalist government refused to least applies to a private organization, and this do on the mainland of China-he found the is well-illustrated by the relationship between means to do it. In India the issue is not one of the government of India and the foundation. reform or no reform; the issue is one of the Moreover, the kind of contribution the founda- slow pace and how to accelerate it, and of cer- tion might be willing to make would preclude tain vital errors in the land reform provisions. altogether the charge of interference. Signifi- The reform being a highly controversial sub- cant in this connection is the fact that India ject, the problem is one of helping India create has already a reform in being; regardless of the a more favorable reform climate, extending to difficulties encountered since its initiation, it groups whose support could make the difference cannot be stopped and eventually will be carried between determined action on the part of the out in its main outlines. What is in question is state governments and halfhearted effort, or the slow pace of the movement and the one none at all. fundamental fault of the legislation. The More specifically, one of the many regret- foundation could provide a significant measure table aspects of the lagging reform movement of assistance in both regards. in India is the failure to support the movement The role of the foundation in a land reform by individuals and groups most capable of per- program cannot but be a modest one measured forming that service. The Indian universities, in financial terms. On the other hand, it can for example, are very much on the sidelines, at play an important part as a stimulator of the best in the role of disinterested or impartial reform idea, of new ideas which have validity observers. They could be won over to the side in national and local terms, and as a means for of reform and at the same time become students the creation of a friendly climate among impor- of the problem. India still suffers from lack of tant groups of people currently aloof from the information about the elemental yet basic fea- reform endeavor. The foundation could not and tures of postreform agricultural economy. This should not be concerned with the payment for applies to prereform agriculture as well. Despite the landlords' land earmarked for distribution all the discussion about fixing ceilings on agri- among tenants, nor need the foundation engage cultural holdings as a part of future reform in the financing of the actual implementation measures, no data are available on the size of of the program. The measures relating to these landholdings and land ownership. The first two points are solely the responsibility of the census is only now in preparation. The effects of country in question, assuming, of course, that the reform legislation already enacted can be the country is willing to carry out a reform. only surmised through personal observations Nor should the foundation take upon itself the because only a few of the twenty-eight states in writing of a land reform law. Such a move is the union of India are taking the trouble now politically dangerous and, besides, almost as a of finding out what the effects are. To be effec- rule the Western expert does not know enough tive, this work of many years' duration must be of Asian conditions to undertake the chore. Sug- done in India and by Indian agricultural econo- gesting ideas, based on close field studies, is mists, sociologists, and political scientists. It is something else, a job tailor-made for the universities. My experience in Asia leads me to believe The role of the foundation in such an under- that the reforms have been slow in coming, not taking is equally tailor-made. Its aid would because governments do not know how to avoid any stigma of imposing a reform upon formulate policies, administer, execute and India and yet stimulate interest in it where evaluate them but primarily because they do it is lacking and thus contribute to the imple- not want reforms in the first place. When Sheikh mentation of the reform program as a whole. Abdullah of Kashmir decided that it was time The financial assistance need not be overly for the peasants to get the land, he did a good large, depending upon the number of universi- job with a limited staff, working with a peas- ties, the number of people willing to undertake antry which is 95 percent illiterate. When the such work, and the number of projects or Advancing Human Welfare 211 studies involved. Significant in this scheme is In summary, aid of the type discussed here the person representing the foundation and and the type of person to help utilize it are charged with the responsibility of promoting fundamental prerequisites for the safeguarding this task. What his qualifications should be are of the sum total of the foundation's invest- reviewed in the section on "Personnel and the ments in effort, time, and money devoted for Correct Approach." Suffice it to say here that the promulgation of other reforms, particularly he must have close familiarity with the prob- those related to community development proj- lems about which he is concerned in a given ects. It is no secret that thoughtful Indians and country, that he must appreciate that his ap- Americans are disturbed by the fact that these proach to the problem should be framed in projects and many of the other agricultural im- terms of needs of the country under considera- provements are often built on the old land tion, and that to establish these needs clearly he tenure arrangements. This is admittedly a weak must understand the value of field investiga- base. It explains the disparaging remarks of tions and consultation with those who "live some tenants about the community projects. On with the problems" day in and day out. He occasion I have listened to such remarks as: must be able to distinguish between need and "What is there in this project for me?" The opportunity because, while important human answer is obvious: rather little, if the lion's needs are easily ascertainable, real opportuni- share of the increased output remains in the ties to meet a need by the application of knowl- same hands. If that condition should remain edge are not always clearly defined. unchanged, the efforts to give new life to India's These are some of the principles one would agricultural economy would fall far short of the expect a disseminator and stimulator of ideas to goals. That is what is meant by safeguarding apply. The one essential not mentioned, but all- the foundation investments, and that is why the important, is that he and his ideas be accepted role of the foundation, in enhancing the pace by those in a position to make policy decisions. and where possibly improving the content of This is not necessarily a test of his success or land reform programs, is of vital importance. failure to advance the cause of the reforms, for conditions beyond his control may block his efforts. The fact remains, however, that whether or not a suggestion is accepted at a given mo- Current Status of Land Reform in India ment, the consultant has rendered a service by and Consultants' Immediate Tasks providing something approximating a forum for the idea, thereby assisting, even if indirectly, Aside from the general task in this field that in the ultimate solution of the problem. the foundation might undertake, there are some In no two countries are the land reform specific issues highly relevant to the future of problems alike, but the ideas as to how the the reform which call for a consultant's im- foundation could stimulate the progress of a mediate attention. reform program-with variations-in most The land reform in India is more than six countries are closely related. India is far more years old; most of the legislation has been en- advanced than Pakistan in this regard. In Pak- acted, and certain of its important provisions istan the readily ascertainable basic facts are have been or are being implemented. And yet, yet to be gathered, described, and analyzed; and the Planning Commission, which gave the form the willingness of the government to launch a and substance to the reform, has never quite reform program is yet to be secured. But the decided what the principal aim of the reform approach of the foundation need not be basi- should be or how far the reform should reach cally different. In both instances the financial aid out in its effects upon the landlord groups. is but a reflection of the foundation's successful The philosophic bases of the reform and the planting of ideas among the policymakers. My enormous body of legislation are replete own experience in Nepal points to the same with double-talk about land purchase schemes conclusion even though the idea of a land re- and ceilings on land ownership, goals which are form does not loom large in the minds of the hardly attainable and which at the same time country's leaders. tend to divert attention from the issues which 212 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 truly matter. Stripped to their essentials, the ceilings would release an acreage large enough fundamental issue in India is not so much land to satisfy a fairly large number of farmers hun- ownership as security of tenure. The cultivator gerino for land. The evidence is that little land does want a piece of land that he can call his would be made available by the imposition of own, but since he must pay for it even under ceilings. the reform, for the vast majority this is un- Very germane to the entire land reform attainable. The sound alternative, therefore, is movement is the question of rural credit. Hardly effective government action that would leave any beneficiaries of the new land tenure at- him on the land undisturbed, paying a reason- rangements could continue so for long without able rental and making the most of the residue. the aid of a rural credit system which is virtu- Currently, this is what the effort should be ally nonexistent at the present time. The will about, and it is in this connection that reform to create one is as yet absent; and, until that legislation needs drastic revision and propping comes about, the Indian farmer, whether old or up. new owner or tenant secured in the right to Since the land purchase provisions have cultivate the land, is bound to have a hard row hardly any practical meanings, the whole con- to hoe to maintain, let alone improve his status. cept of the Congress Party slogan "Land to The Planning Commission is not unaware the tillers," is but a mere expression of intent of these fundamental shortcomings of the land of the reform legislation. Nor is the concept of reform movement. The Congress Party, which rent reduction, one of the main pillars of the staked its political life on "Land to the tillers" reform, especially strong. Rent reduction is promises, is also beginning to recognize their meaningless without security of tenure, and the urgency. The discussions of this observer with fact is that the security of tenure legislation is the the members of the commission and a number Achilles heel of the entire tenancy reform. Such of members of the Congress Party bear this out. is the case because part and parcel of the tenure But it will take much soul-searching and thor- legislation is the right of the landlord to resume ough appreciation of the issues at stake to make a fixed area of land for so-called self-cultivation the decisions which cannot be delayed much by evicting the tenants. This provision has been longer. Advice from the outside has its place made with the intention of striking a balance and will be accepted if based on knowledge and between the claims of the landlord and the proffered in the spirit which induces Asians tenant. Its net effect is the weakening rather and Westerners to work together for a common than the strengthening of the security of tenure goal. idea. In the Punjab, for example, the number of evicted tenants is probably as great as the number of those remaining on the land. The net Personnel and the Correct Approach result is a new type of tenant in India-the 'evicted tenant." Resumption or permissible The assumption has been made that what hap- self-cultivation is a basic flaw of the land re- pens in Asia in coming decades is as decisive form in India. The new self-cultivators work for the future shape of the world as anything the land with newly hired hands or with the that happens in Western Europe. If this is cor- erstwhile tenants turned farm hands. rect, then the individuals concerned with the Another immediate issue, although not as various aspects of development in Asia must important as that of resumption, is the proposal shoulder great responsibilities. of ceilings on holdings as a means of dis- All our past affinities have been with Eu- tributing land among tenants. This idea stems rope by origin, culture, trade, and history. from considerations of social justice, but there Americans emerging from classic isolationism are other considerations which cannot be dis- only in the past few decades have come to missed, such as the economic criterion for the place their relations with Europe in a new fixation of ceilings, the economic efficiency of perspective. This has not been easy, but it has reduced holdings, and the matter of compen- at least been made easier by the fact that we sating the landlords. Perhaps the most impor- have been tied to Europe in one way or another tant consideration is whether the fixation of by our entire past. Not so with Asia, and it ex- Advancing Human WFelfare 213 plains in good measure our bewilderment over not a fruitful approach. If the disseminator of recent events there. In a real sense we are facing ideas in Asia is to be successful, he must first people we have not met before, and this neces- be accepted by the people who ultimately are sitates a very special type of person to carry likely to act upon them. And the acceptance in out certain tasks. turn presupposes not only technical knowledge, That he must have technical competence is but also a keen understanding of the proposi- assumed as a matter of course and needs no tions discussed earlier and the ability to articu- further affirmation. In the light of the goals our late them. Having succeeded in that, the ideas aid should pursue, he must have more than relating to the specific subject, expressed orally technical competence. The field-worker must be or in writing and with a humility born of true able to understand the position the people of knowledge and understanding, will find their a given country are in, to grasp something of mark. The ideas then are adopted by the recipi- their attitudes, their feelings, their state of ent country as if they were of its own origin, mind, their view of events and of the world; and their ultimate application is insured. This he must have the ability to see local problems is what is meant by assistance by "indirection." in their logical framework, and possess the will- In a microcosm, this method serves to illustrate ingness to work within this framework towards the thesis enunciated by the Ford Foundation, stated objectives. Working as he often must which states in part, that "The problems and in a country formerly dominated by a Western opportunities of our time arise out of man's power, he would do well to start with a look relation to man-rather than his relations to at its legacy, although, obviously, that power is the physical world." not its sole creator. He must see what it is by In "A Re-look at Point Four in Asia," way of economics, politics, and attitudes that Raymond T. Moyer argued that, although offi- these people bring with them onto the world cials in underdeveloped countries are often not stage at the present time. He must appreciate concerned with public welfare, this does not ex- the fact that the economic legacy is often pov- clude successful attempts to achieve certain ob- erty, as illustrated by low per capita income, jectives if "the right kind of approach" is short life expectancy, low food intake, and a applied. He points out that "Governments, like high degree of illiteracy. The psychological people, are seldom wholly good or bad. Nearly legacy is fear, suspicion, and hostility. It stems every government has some responsible officials from the imposed military, economic, legal, with far better intentions than would be sus- and racial superiority of the ruling power and pected from the actions of their governments all that resulted in the imposition of enforced as a whole." It is the responsibility of the per- inferiority. The political legacy is authori- son in the field to seek them out and encour- tarianism, even when it is embellished with age, educate, and persuade them, and always modern democratic forms. All of this and more with tact and humility. are the content within which the worker must The possession of the latter attitude is the carry on his task, and to a large degree the suc- most invaluable of assets. This is particularly cess or failure of his labor will depend upon true in Asia because "Asians," as Dr. Moyer the extent to which he understands and ac- correctly pointed out, "have had enough of cepts these fundamentals. rough-shod treading on their feelings by boast- It has been my experience in Asia that much ing Westerners, who go blithely ignoring the can be achieved by "indirection," as it were. fact that in most cases they must learn before Even if it were possible for a technically compe- they can teach. Of such, Asians want no more. tent person from the West to write sound legis- But Asians will welcome gladly those who come lation relating to land tenure problems, farm from Western lands with a reasonable sense of credit, or farm taxation, there is no assurance humility, prepared to work as associates in a that it will be accepted or, if accepted, enforced. task in which both believe." It is easy to say: "I recommend this" or "I rec- Last, and surely not least, the proper person oromend that," but when dealing with proud, with the proper approach must understand the sensitive, and suspicious individuals, shot significance which Asians attach to personal re- through with nationalistic proclivities, this is lations. Admittedly, in all human relations there 214 THE TOKYO YEARS, 1945-1954 is no substitute for the personal element. This part of the paper is of necessity a generalized is even more so in Asia where most activities one. I understand that each country presents a are regulated on the basis of the man-to-man separate problem, requiring its own case analy- relationship. sis, study, and understanding. Consequently, These are the principal requisites a person a general type of program may have to be working in underdeveloped areas should possess tailored to the peculiar requirements of sepa- when he embarks on the task of advancing rate areas. But the nature of the principal issues their development. and the way of dealing with them have appli- Such, in the main, are my observations and cation in most underdeveloped countries. This the way I approach the problem I believe you is particularly true of the personnel most suit- have in mind. The picture drawn in the first able for the task. 1II. THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 fADEJINSKY ARRIVED IN SAIGON in January 1955 and served there until the middle of 1961. From February 1956, when he terminated his service with the U.S. aid mission, he was in the direct employ of the Vietnamese government as personal adviser to President Diem. The general setting in which he was to work and how he came to serve in this seemingly unlikely place merit some description. Ngo Dinh Diem had himself returned to Vietnam, initially as premier under Emperor Bao Dai, only six months before Ladejinsky's own arrival there. This was only months after the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu and shortly after the Geneva Conference. The country was war torn; French troops were still present in considerable numbers; the influence of the Viet Minh in the countryside was still very strong; and the authority of the new, weak, French-sponsored government in Saigon was flouted by the powerful Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, and Binh Xuyen sects. "The south had become a political jungle of warlords, sects, bandits, partisan troops, and secret societies."' This condition had caused the United States to post Colonel Lansdale to Saigon in June 1954 as head of a military advisory mission. Lansdale had gained fame as an antiguerrilla fighter in the Philippines not long before, where he helped Magsaysay subdue the Huk insurgents. There he had learned to appreciate the importance of winning over the peasantry, because it was they who determined whether the environment in which guerrillas had to operate would be friendly or hostile. According to Delia and Ferdinand Kuhn, the American journalists who interviewed Colonel Lansdale shortly after his arrival in Saigon, he told them that what he needed most were a few Americans who could go into the villages and talk to the peasants in terms that would help win their confidence and support. The Kuhns, who had come to know and admire Ladejinsky during his Tokyo years, told Lansdale, "It sounds to us as though Wolf Ladejinsky is just the man you need." By August the U.S. embassy in Saigon was requesting the Department of State to send Ladejinsky out for at least a short period to assist in an urgently needed land reform effort. He was not made available at that time. But a few months later, when a major incident erupted over Secretary of Agriculture Benson's allegation that Ladejinsky was a "national security risk," the U.S. aid agency (then, the Foreign Operations Administration) promptly offered Ladejinsky a job as land reform adviser in Vietnam and he just as promptly accepted. Colonel Lansdale made sure to introduce him personally, on arrival, to President Diem and strongly advised the president to keep his door open to this man at all times. 1. Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1972), p. 93. 215 216 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 Twenty-four of Ladejinsky's writings during these Vietnam years are known.2 Fourteen of these are concerned with Vietnam and are concentrated heavily in 1955-56. Three of the five 1955 papers are devoted, typically, to field observations in central and southern Vietnam, in which Ladejinsky sought to learn at first hand the nature and dimensions of the problems involved in implementing successfully the rent reduction and security of tenure measures (ordinances 2 and 7) which had been promulgated in January and February of 1955. These masterly analyses of conditions in the Vietnamese countryside are bound to be of great value to future historians of the period. Other 1955 papers describe a meeting with a group of landlords and another with President Diem. In 1956 Ladejinsky's emphasis turned to the important Cai San resettlement project and to shaping the U.S. aid program along the lines he thought necessary. But after 1956 the only Vietnam papers available are retrospective in nature. I presume that Ladejinsky became heavily involved, operationally, in the implementation of ordinance 57, promulgated-surely on his advice- in October 1956, which introduced a large-scale land redistribution program in the heavily tenanted southern part of the country. This program, fully described in his 1961 paper, "Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam," bears many of the characteristic Ladejinsky hallmarks-not least, the painstaking determination of the acreage subject to redistribution, the determination of land purchase prices which would at once be fair to the owners and feasible for the tenant buyers, and the creation of provincial and local committees to supervise and administer the program. Because of delays in negotiating problems of payment for the French-owned lands which comprised a substantial part of the total to be redistributed, most of the land transfers were not completed until the end of 1960. Although such an operational preoccupation would suffice to explain the drying up of Ladejinsky's Vietnam-related papers during 1957-59, it seems a fair presumption that after some time in 1959 he became progressively more disillusioned with the evolution of events in Vietnam and with the prospects for his further useful service there. Remaining papers after 1956 show his interests turning elsewhere. He comments on the agrarian revolution in Japan and in Asia to a Catholic conference in 1957; he examines in the same year Communist China's new push toward collectivization; and in 1959 he reviews independent Vietnam's first five years and does a final assessment of the agrarian revolution in Japan. But the 1960-61 papers are more forward looking and reflect Ladejinsky's preparations to leave Vietnam. One letter, discussing a prospective work relationship with the Ford Foundation, contains a revealing self-description and self-assessment. Others show him, on leave for short intervals from his Saigon job, exploring in Nepal a post the Ford Foundation has suggested to him there and conveying to the prime minister his misgivings about Nepal's new five-year plan. During the same period he is seen reporting on an interesting visit to Indonesia, responding to an enquiry from Japan, and reviewing Communist China's new thrust from agricultural collectives to communes. There is, finally, his considered assessment of agrarian reform in Vietnam, prepared for a conference at Michigan State University. Of the twenty-four papers plus one fragment produced during the Vietnam years, fourteen are presented here. Of these, eight are concerned with Vietnam, two each with Nepal and Japan, and one with Indonesia. Also presented are his candidly engaging self-description and the important fragment on Asia. 2. See the Chronological Bibliography. Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 217 25. Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam Ladejinsky could not have been in Vietnam more than a few weeks before he set off, characteristically, on an exploratory trip into the countryside on March 7, 1955. Although warned by officials of the Ministry of Agriculture against such a trip, unless accompanied by a large parry, because the countryside was "insecure," he preferred to go out with an interpreter only. He found, among other things, that the government's new rent reduction program lacked appeal to the farmers because the Viet Minh had instituted even lower rent ceilings and the tenants were not paying any rents at all to their landlords; some landlords welcomed the reform because for them it meant at least some rent rather than none at all; the tenants had enjoyed more status and power in their villages under the Viet Minh; and, because of small- sized farms and poor soil conditions, land reform in central Vietnam "must give way to 'agrarian reform,' a term which stands for the improvement of all economic and social institutions connected with farm life." Moreover, Ladejinsky compared the political atmosphere then prevailing with that under the Viet Minh, and the behavior of the national army he compared with that of the Viet Minh soldiers-in both cases a comparison highly favorable to the Viet Minh. Upon his return from this field trip, Ladejinsky concludes, he "had the privilege of discussing his impressions with President Diem. The principal points at issue, including the role the president himself might play in dealing with them, have been conveyed to him." This last could scarcely have found a sympathetic reading at the U.S. Embassy. But this would not serve to explain why Ladejinsky's report, dated April 2, should not have been transmitted to Washington until May 23 (dispatch 410). Ladejinsky noted that "The writer of this report appreciates the danger of generalizations based on a small sample. And the sample was small. Future events may prove his fears groundless and suggestions uncalled for; but, be that as it may, the observations reflect existing conditions." Introduction 'safari." Security, presumably, was the excuse for their concern. Fortunately, wiser counsel ON MARCH 7 THE WRITER Of these notes prevailed and the assistance of the ministry was started on his first field trip in Vietnam, a trip dispensed with. Instead we were accompanied lasting but four days. It was intended, in part, by the English-speaking Do Trong Chu of the as a "feeler" to test the reports in Saigon on refugee commissioner's office and later joined the difficulties of travel in the countryside. The by Tran Duc Nhuan of the UsoM [U.S. Opera- officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, for ex- tions Mission] regional office in Hue, who ample, took a dim view of the undertaking proved himself to be a young man with su- when first approached on the subject. If their perior knowledge of central Vietnam. advice had been followed, it would have meant The purpose of the trip was to see some- travel in the company of the minister of agri- thing of the lay of the land of Vietnam, to note culture, local bigwigs (both civilian and mili- the character of the village, and to get firsthand tary), and all the fanfare attached to such a impressions of the attitude of the farmers to- 218 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 ward the land-rent control program about to data denoting the economic and social struc- commence. However, in the course of the trip, ture of the community are a more difficult mat- other problems pressed themselves upon the ter. Probing for such information causes a visitors. They are part and parcel of the eco- great deal of headscratching, and answers finally nomic and political conditions of the country- elicited are no more than approximations at side. best. The party traveled north and east of Hue, Another factor worth noting is that the area then south of Tourane and from Tourane fur- under consideration is not necessarily typical of ther south to the districts of Faifoo and Tam other parts of Vietnam. It does not call for pro- Ky. We visited four villages, of which two were found knowledge of the country to realize that under the Viet Minh for a number of years; both regional differences and differences within three district offices; and paid calls on two regions are very great in Vietnam. The exist- chiefs of provinces. In the light of the experi- ence of public or communal land and its peri- ence gained on this trip, it appears that fears odic subdivision among all the farmers are expressed by Saigon officialdom were grossly characteristic of certain parts of central Viet- exaggerated. But it must be admitted that the nam, but this practice is not universal even time has not yet come when a curious foreigner, there, much less in the rest of the country. no matter how well-intentioned, can drive into Equally important is the fact that while land- a village in search of information and gain the lordism-in the commonly accepted meaning immediate cooperation of the farmers. This was of the term-is widespread in southern Viet- particularly true of the former Viet Minh vil- nam, it is not, as will be pointed out elsewhere, lages, where people look at you with suspicion an important feature in central Vietnam. and say very, very little. Under these circum- A jeep ride from Hue to Tourane in any stances the assistance of the district officer is direction, over a long or short distance, serves invaluable. His aid smooths the rough road to- as a good briefing about the war-torn country. ward any valid impression of past and present Barbed wire, perhaps more than any other fea- conditions in a given village. Talks with district ture, dominates the scene. Protective barbed officials (as with the chiefs of provinces) pre- wire obstacles of all forms and shapes, encircling ceding the trips into the villages were in them- watchrowers, shot-up bunkers, and troop in- selves invaluable. Officials gave the impression stallations dot the main line of communications of close familiarity with local conditions, some as far as the eye can see. Some of the watch- of them having lived under the Viet Minh for towers and bunkers seem to be deserted now, years. Without their aid, the value of this trip but they served their purpose in the past. Their would have been limited indeed. past utility was brought home to us by a dis- The subsequent paragraphs do not claim to trict officer as we watched the plain from the be more than they are-firsthand impressions top of a bunker. "Before Geneva," he remarked, of rural conditions in a particular locality, "this outpost helped us to secure the country- hastily gathered, and based on facts and figures side in the daytime, while the Viet Minh con- which leave very much to be desired. The vil- trolled it in the nighttime." lages have no written records to speak of, espe- The farmers, whether pro- or anti-Viet Minh, cially those villages formerly under the Viet were caught in the middle, for they had two Minh. Land and tax records and district regis- sets of forces to contend with. "Whenever I ters were hidden or taken away by the Viet think of the road leading into our village," a Minh when they left the district. The district farmer remarked, "I think of the two masters- offices do have certain overall figures, but they the Viet Minh by night and the French by day. must be treated with extreme caution. The During the night we had to dig it up and dur- main ingredient of village data is the old- ing the day we had to fill it in with dirt and timers' ability to recall fair approximations of debris. Digging out for the Viet Minh and population and acreage, livestock numbers, cur- filling in for the French." But not everything rent prices, and so forth. The density of popu- could be fixed by day which was destroyed un- lation on the land is in itself an important clue der the cover of darkness. to basic conditions in a village. The important When one travels through the country and Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 219 listens to accounts of the recent past, the illu- area has shrunk to but 15,000 hectares due to sion of "security by day" becomes quite obvious. war dislocations, the average size of a holding One could not help but face blown-up bridges; is small even by the crowded Asian standards. torn-up roads, particularly in the areas con- Conditions created by the war aside, the normal trolled or contested by the Viet Minh; and irri- pattern of a single hectare or less is amply sup- gation canals and dikes in disrepair. Everywhere ported by evidence gathered in the villages. La we heard of the sharp decline in acreage and Chu village, for example, is made up of 350 yields, and concern about the shape of things farm families who divide among themselves a to come. As against the effects of recent events, total of 200 hectares, of which 150 hectares are we encountered much evidence of roads and cultivated. In the village of Su Lo Dong, 400 bridges being rebuilt or new community houses families subsist on a total of 220 hectares, more replacing the ones burned down by the Viet than half of which is rice land. Minh. We saw the teeming market towns and While the cultivable acreage in this section hosts of farmers streaming down from their of the country has never been large, it was re- hamlets, with lively waddling steps, carrying duced materially during the war years. The de- over their shoulders baskets of foodstuffs to the terioration of irrigation facilities and of dikes market. These signs of quickened activity were and dams are cited as the primary cause. In the heartening to behold; but, on balance and from district of Phu Loc, 40 percent of the land the point of view of the region's farm economy (1,800 hectares) is out of cultivation because and the struggle against the political legacy of salt water has seeped in through broken dams. the Viet Minh, the aftermath of the years of The decline in the buffalo population is an- strife is very much in evidence and the effort other important factor leading to the same re- to cope with it is only beginning to take shape. sult. By the same token, it is a significant index to the worsened economic condition of the farm community. For many a farmer, a buffalo is the most im- The Village and the People portant source of wealth, its value being esti- mated from $100 to $200, depending upon the What is the village like and what are some of quality of the animal. For a tenant farmer, his its problems? buffalo is the principal tangible asset. His farm A fundamental one, the small holding, was equipment doesn't cut much of a figure. The apparent even before we landed in Hue. From wood plow with the iron tip, the wooden har- the plane we observed a land configuration strik- row, the wooden roller, the brush-cutting knife, ingly similar to that of Japan, Korea, or For- the hoe, the scythe and the threshing basket- mosa-small fields fitted together like the pieces all these call for an investment of no more than of a jigsaw puzzle. What was not familiar were $25. And the information points to the fact the pockmarks with which some of the fields that the buffalo population is roughly one-half were crowded; upon closer examination they to one-third of what it was before the civil war proved to be graves. Talks with farmers and began in 1946. A decline in cultivated acreage local officials readily revealed that this section was inevitable and, along with it, a decline in of central Vietnam, and indeed all of central the "wealth" of the community. Vietnam, is characterized by that well-known The land of any given village is not all feature that plagues so many other countries of privately owned. Much of it is community- Asia and the Middle East-too many people owned land. As in other instances involving on too little land. Holdings of one hectare, a quantitative delineations, the proportions of half hectare, or even less, broken up in a num- community and private land are not easily deter- ber of pieces and scattered in all directions, are mined. If the guesstimates are taken at their the prevailing pattern. face value, the percentage of community land Thua Thien province, for instance, has an can be as low as 20 and as high as 80. Modern estimated 40,000 farm families, subsisting be- developments, mainly those tending to disrupt fore the war on an estimated 33,000 hectares of the old village pattern, account for the differ- cultivated land. If it is true that the prewar ences. Community land is redivided every three 220 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 years and, theoretically, the standard of distri- to acquire a piece of land on his own. Farmers bution depends upon the number and ages of assured us that there were virtually no land the male members of a family. Every male be- transactions of any kind. Clearly, the uncertain- tween 18 and 60 is entitled to one unit of land, ties of war and the Viet Minh position with and males above 60 to one-half of a unit. In respect to the land question, about which more reality, there have been many instances when later, were in themselves powerful factors dis- the village notables (a term applied to the ap- couraging transfer of land. It is all the more pointed leaders) charged with the task oper- surprising, therefore, that land prices are very ated on the theory that "To him who has, it high, judging by such quotations as 100,000 to shall be given.' As a result, some farmers have 140,000 piastres per hectare or roughly $600 hardly any land at all and rent private or coin- to $800.' When the farmers are asked "Why munity land from those who control it. The one so high?" the reply, as one put it, was that "a restriction on community land is that it cannot box of matches now costs 2 piastres, whereas be sold. before the war the price was only one centime." The economic well-being of the village re- But whatever the cause of high land values, it volves not only around the land it possesses as is quite clear that in the decade since the end a unit but also around the relationship of the of the Second World War no tenant could cultivators to the land. But information on this possibly accumulate enough to buy even a por- crucial point is hard to get. Neither district offi- tion of a hectare. He could not do that not only cers nor villagers will shed much light on the because he works a small holding but also be- subject. When a district officer was pressed for cause the yield of his main crop is only one information, he finally resorted to his "Bible," ton per hectare, or approximately one-third the a dog-eared statistical compilation published in average of Japanese rice yields. Moreover, be- 1931, with figures for the year 1929. The vil- cause they work such small holdings and the lages we visited had no recorded data, modern yields are so low, tenants as well as small farm or ancient. Nevertheless, a farmer would shift owners produce only enough rice to last them his weight from foot to foot, think hard, and from four to six months. They buy whatever produce a figure. It was on this basis that we additional rice they can through the sale of were left with the impression that approxi- other products on the local market, but a great mnately one-third of the farmers are tenants many of them cannot get their fill of the food- working somebody else's land. stuff they want most. Big landlords are a rarity in central Vietnam. Taxation is a burden about which farmers The biggest we encountered was a chief of a the world over complain. It was a novel experi- province who owned 40 hectares rented out to ence, therefore, to find that the farmers we eighty tenants. The run-of-the-mill landlord is talked to felt taxation was no problem. The often one by courtesy. Two to 3 hectares will reason is simple: While the farmers pay indi- put him in that category, while men with 10 rect (sales) taxes or stamp charges when they hectares are indeed substantial owners. Rentals, file or register an occasional document, in 1955 in normal times are approximately 50 percent they will pay no direct taxes. Even the land tax, of the main crop if the landlord furnished seed which is only 150 to 200 piastres per hectare, and fertilizer, or 25 to 30 percent of the crop will not be collected this year. The entire pre- if these items were furnished by the tenants. war taxation system fell into disuse in the past The area here considered is not a typical decade or so, and in Viet Minh-occupied areas landlord-tenant area; yet, in view of the fairly the new taxation practices disappeared with the large number of tenants, one of the questions departure of the Viet Minh. However, the Viet raised was whether or not a tenant is ever in a Minh did succeed in collecting taxes in 1954; position to ascend the higher rungs of the agri- hence the decision of the national government cultural ladder. The answer was invariably in not to impose any taxes in 1955 on the ground the negative. The very question seemed to be that the farmers should not be taxed twice. out of order. And indeed it would be surpris- ing, considering prevailing land prices on the 1. Piastres converted into dollars at the unofficial one hand and income on the other, for a tenant rate of exchange. Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 221 The same practice will apply in non-Viet for security reasons, and the net result is a Minh-occupied villages. The restoration of the vacuum which no one has yet begun to fill. taxation system will come with the return of Occasionally a farmer does buy a buffalo or normalcy, but for the time being this is one manages to obtain a loan in an emergency; in item which doesn't seem to trouble the farmers. such cases the farmer must rely on family con- Farm indebtedness, too, is evidently no great nections to tide himself over. The poverty of problem at the moment. We were not pre- the average farmer is an additional handicap pared for this situation because traditionally in securing a loan for the simple reason that the farmers carried a heavy burden of indebted- "no one but a fool or philanthropist will lend ness. The whole population, a noted scholar to a pauper." In the villages we visited there once remarked, is caught in a "tightly drawn are probably some fools, but evidently not network of loans and debts." This statement monied ones, and surely no philanthropists. referred to Indo-China in general and central A striking feature of the trip was the market Vietnam was no exception. And one of the centers. They convey the impression of a classic reasons for this prewar state of affairs bustling money economy; but as far as the ma- was: "The people of Annam (central Vietnam) jority of the farmers are concerned, the impres- would try to borrow up to the extreme limit sion is more apparent than real. Little money of their credit." How is it then that the ques- changes hands except when a buffalo is sold tion of indebtedness is no great issue now? or at the cock fight on the fairgrounds of the The answer lies not in the prosperity of the city of Tam Ky where a relatively small but village but in the virtual drying up of sources of obviously dedicated circle of spectators flashed credit. In saying this, no attempt is made to wads of bills as tokens of their confidence in equate availability of credit with heavy and the fighting spirit of this cock or the other. But burdensome indebtedness and thus argue against as we watched the average farmer selling fruit, the creation of sound credit facilities; the fact vegetables, eggs, chickens, or an occasional is that it is not indebtedness that is the evil piglet and exchanging the proceeds for other but excessive indebtedness for unproductive necessities, it was obvious he would return to purposes. his village with little cash, if any. A visit to a Whether the farmers employ credit wisely or farmstead completes the picture. Exceptions whether the existence of credit creates burden- notwithstanding, in most cases the familiar hut some debt were not the points discussed with made of local grass and brush is bare of worldly the farmers. What we were trying to ascertain goods. A rough-hewn bedstead is the most was whether they needed credit and, if so, how likely piece of furniture, while a bench, a few they could secure it. Opinion is unanimous on earthen pots, a change of clothing and a brood the critical need for: (a) short-term credit dur- of half-naked children complete the picture. ing the growing, harvesting, and marketing "Porgy and Bess" could provide the theme song periods; (b) intermediate-term credit for in- for many of the farmers of central Vietnam- vestment in livestock; and (c) long-term credit "I've got plenty of nothin' and nothin's plenty for a variety of land improvement activities un- for me." It doesn't call for an elaborate study of dertaken individually or collectively. For most the standard of living to say with fair certainty farmers, however, especially the small marginal that the Vietnamese standard is certainly way cultivators, securing a loan is well-nigh impos- below that of the Japanese farmer and below sible under present conditions. An occasional that of the Korean, Formosan, Burmese, and loan is still obtainable in the form of rice, se- Filipino farmer. They come closest to the level cured three to four months before the harvest of certain groups of Indian farmers. at the rate of 130 kilograms for every 100 kilo- Free Vietnam is ablaze with slogans, and grams borrowed. . one of the most commonly encountered is that In prewar days the moneylender was the "Literate people make a powerful nation." This principal source of credit. But, if the farmers emphasis, if backed by deeds, is well-taken, for are to be believed, he has practically disappeared the educational facilities of rural central Viet- in the turbulence of civil war. Also, the few nam are conspicuous by their absence. In this well-to-do have left the villages for the cities respect, the area does not stand alone; other 222 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 Asian and Middle Eastern farmers share the Government because people are comparing the same problem with their Vietnamese counter- educational activities of the Viet Minh with parts. Yet in the light of the drive for ele- that of the National Government." Our in- mentary education in many Asian countries, it formants bemoaned the fact that, with the de- seems that the region we traversed is remark- parture of the Viet Minh, educational activi- able for its lack of educational facilities. ties slackened. It appears, nevertheless, that If we are to believe the notables of La Chu neither the local administration nor private village, there is only one school to every forty citizens has seen any need to fill the breach. villages of the district! It is not so bad in other Such, in the main, were our hasty impres- districts where the proportion of schools to sions of this particular rural section of central villages was variously estimated at one to five, Vietnam. Land holdings are small and not too one to ten, and one to fifteen. Nobody voiced fertile, and the people cultivating them eke out any objection to school or schooling, and one of a poor living. They are faced with all the the elders gravely observed that "the fight problems associated with such conditions. If against illiteracy is as important as the fight these chronic rather than temporary conditions against hunger." Yet, even in the relatively were bad before the war, they are unquestion- well-off village mentioned above (nobody ably worse now. This is true also of the areas there, the notables assured us, is either too rich which were never physically occupied by the or too poor), there did not seem to be any Viet Minh. The Viet Minh affected the coun- interest in spending any money on teaching tryside as a whole, although their influence was the three R's to the young. The school we saw felt to a greater degree in the areas under their in the city of Tam Ky was a very simple affair: occupation. In the latter, the small number of a blackboard, a few benches, and a few tables, wvell-off farmers have gone through a leveling all open to the weather, since the thatched roof process which placed them alongside the mass was supported only by four corner posts. The of the farmers. Mr. Chao, deputy chief of the arrangement did not appear to be an expensive district of Tam Ky, formerly a Viet Minh one even for the poor villages of central Viet- stronghold, was probably right when he ob- nam. The real reason for lack of schools, one served: "In our villages there are no more rich suspects, lies in the inertia of the farmers them- and poor people; there are only equally poor selves and of their leaders. people." It is worth emphasizing in this connection The economics of equalization downward is that farmers and officials alike have words of quite obvious and needs no comment. Less obvi- praise for the efforts of the Viet Minh. Accord- ous but nonetheless significant are the effects ing to their accounts, the Viet Minh was the of the "Vietminhization" process on the multi- most active in creating school facilities and tude of farmers and their attitude toward the finding local talent to spread literacy. This is national government and its activities. The land- reflected also in official statements. A Viet- rent control program initiated by the national namese document "Concerning the Economic, government is, at least in part, a case in point. Political and Cultural Problems of Tam Ky and What the Viet Minh has done in this field has Request for Aid" has this to say: "Tam Ky is important bearing upon the program considered a large district with a population of 300.000. in the subsequent paragraphs. Before 1945 there were four primary schools (one school for boys and for girls at Tam Ky, one for boys at An-Tan, and one for boys at Chien-Dan). Under the Viet Minh regime The Land Reform Program there were three secondary public schools, two private secondary schools and 100 private and In January and February 1955, President Diem public primary schools. The people need more issued a number of ordinances inaugurating the and more education, and their standard of edu- land-rent control program in Vietnam, com- cation must become higher and higher. If we monly referred to as the "land reform program." cannot satisfy the people in this matter, it will Its principal provisions are: (1) Rentals from result in a political defeat for the National 15 to 25 percent of the major crop; owners of Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 223 the poorer land are to be compensated at the actually receiving rent, albeit a reduced one, is former rate while owners of good land are to indeed welcome. be compensated at the latter rate. (2) The The program was inaugurated in February tenants must pay additional charges for the use and by early March the farmers had only a hazy of the landlord's work animal (not to exceed 12 idea what it was about. Few farmers could state percent of the crop) and the actual cost-plus the most essential provisions of the program. 12 percent annual interest rate-of seed and Some had vague notions-and no more. If they fertilizer, if such are furnished by the owner. knew more about it, they probably would not (3) The rental terms will be specified in a overlook a weakness of the program-the rela- written contract, covering a period of three to tive ease with which the landlord could recover five years. (4) The implementation of the pro- the land after the expiration of the contract. gram is to be carried out by elected committees On at least two occasions farmers assumed that of tenants and landowners in each of Vietnam's the program dealt with land ownership and land 350 cantons, 102 districts, and 34 provinces. distribution, which, of course, it does not. The (5) Resettlement of farmers on private lands printed posters with the brief outlines of the abandoned by the landlords or on government- rent control scheme had yet not reached the owned land. Priority rights are given to refu- villages. District officials, on the other hand, gees, former tenants, heirs of war heroes, war were familiar with the law's provisions; but, veterans, and nonfarmers who wish to take up being few in number, they had no time to that occupation. Considering the exorbitant spread the word or to explain and impress upon prewar rentals, the implementation of the pro- the farmers the meaning of the reform. To cor- gram should benefit the tenants and provide rect this, the chiefs of provinces are beginning them with a considerable measure of relief to select groups of young people for future from arbitrary actions on the part of the land- work on the local level. The time element and lords as well as a degree of security of tenure. shortage of personnel, rather than deliberate What are the realities in the light of this lack of interest on the part of the officials, were reasonable assumption? How important is the partial causes for the lack of activity and the program to the farmers? How significant is the impression that these measures are not of very program politically? Is the program being im- great significance. Time may correct these plemented? These were the questions addressed shortcomings which, incidentally, have also to landlords, tenants, and local officials. shown themselves in countries with much bet- It is too early to give definitive answers. The ter administrative organizations, where there fears and hopes engendered by the recent past had been a more thorough preparation for tasks have so proliferated in the minds of the ten- of a somewhat similar nature. ants that they are hardly in a position now to More disturbing is the lukewarm attitude see the reform in clear-cut terms. Yet a pre- toward the program on the part of those on liminary assessment may be made subject to whose behalf it was initiated and who do know correction implicit in the limitation just noted. that rent reduction is its essential part. When Weighing the pros and cons, it appears to this a farmer is asked to state the needs which truly observer that the tenants do not look upon the matter to him, rent control is virtually ignored program as one of overriding importance. The as if the rent problem did not exist. The num- economic advantages seem to them less impres- ber one item the farmers (and the officials) in- sive than one might have expected at first variably mention is better irrigation facilities, glance. The political aspects do not concern followed by requests for aid in reconstructing them, although the officials believe that politi- dikes and dams and in purchasing water pumps. cally the national government stands to gain Fertilizer and credit are next on the priority from the application of the land reform ordi- list. It has usually been necessary for the in- nances. The position of the landlords is one of quiring observer himself to raise the land rent favoring the reform on both grounds; if the question in order to solicit answers. Hardly ever ordinances are enforced, they will naturally did the farmers react to the reform as if it were benefit from them. They collected next to no a "felt need." rent under the Viet Minh and the chance of Why this appearance of unconcern, a posi- 224 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 tion sharply in contrast with that of other where a rent reduction program should have farmers in Asia when the land question is much wider scope. under consideration? The answer to this ques- The above is only one minor aspect of the tion appears to be twofold. The first reason- problem. The land-rent reduction need not have one of relatively small importance-is the type great urgency in order to be received very of landlordism prevailing in that section of the warmly by the tenants of this part of central country. The second explanation, and by far Vietnam. Every additional measure of rice is a the more important one, lies in the conse- gain; every deficit rice producer is cognizant quences of the land reform and political activi- of that-and they are all deficit producers. The ties of the Viet Minh. ordinances would have ushered in a highly As to first-and at the risk of repetition- significant event but for the fact that the Viet it is well to stress that in this region landlordism Minh had taken the edge off this greater ex- of a kind that gives rise to great political up- pectation by the implementation of "reforms" heavals is absent. Excessive concentration of of their own throughout most of this area. This land ownership is unknown, and absentee land- is probably the most telling reason why the idea lordism is not a common feature. Landlords' and content of the national government reform holdings are too small to place them in a cate- measures are not new and, above all, lack the gory of exploiters living in ease at the expense impact they would have had in central Vietnam, of the tenants. Even in appearance they can even though land reform there is not a do-or-die hardly be distinguished from other farmers issue. A tenant's list of priorities would have working in the field or taking part in village been quite different if the present reduction affairs. To this should be added that much of scheme had immediately supplanted the pre- the land is community owned-not privately war arrangement whereby the rent charges owned. A landlord can rent out the land, but amounted to about half of the crop. he does not own it and his instinct of unbridled Landlords, tenants, and officials are well proprietorship of land is somewhat watered aware of the Viet Minh's agrarian policies. down. Under the circumstances, the average While they cannot describe the changes and landlord in this part of central Vietnam is far twists of the Viet Minh's agrarian policies from the classic Asian landlord symbol wield- covering nearly a decade, they have had a great ing unlimited economic and political power in deal of experience with Viet Minh rent reduc- his community. tion schemes, outright confiscation of land be- The tenant's attitude is but a reflection of longing to "traitors" and to absentee landlords the above conditions. Community-owned land and the like. Thus, the Viet Minh reform be- provides him with a holding, even if it is only came a household word in occupied and non- one-tenth of a hectare. Since the total cultivated occupied areas. Different groups were differ- acreage of a village is very small, the additional ently affected by their measures, but the attitude land he rents is also small. As a renter, he has was not formed solely by economic considera- grievances against the landlord; but they are tions. This is an important point in any attempt tempered by the fact that he deals with a man to evaluate the position of the tenants and who may be only one step removed from his their halfhearted acceptance of President Diem's condition. The tenant will surely be helped by measures. It explains also their reluctance to reduction in rent; such gains, however, depend talk about their experience under the Viet not only upon the newly fixed rentals but also Minh. upon the size of the holding he rents. Since The landlords were willing to share their ex- that is notoriously small, from an economic perience. The big landlord of 40 hectares lived point of view the gain cannot be very great. It tinder Viet Minh for nine years and now is is not unnatural, therefore, that to some tenants chief of one of the provinces. As a resident the importance of measures resulting in in- landlord, he was never dispossessed of his land. creased production on his small holding seems Soon enough the land became a burden he more meaningful than rent reduction. For the wished to shed, but the Viet Minh would not same reason, they would point to southern Viet- permit it. They preferred him (and other resi- nam where land is more plentiful as the place dent landlords) to continue renting out land Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 225 to tenants, but, of course, on the Viet Minh's they are more important in the village, while own terms. These terms, according to his ac- the landlords are becoming poorer and have lost count, meant a rental of 15 percent of the main their former prestige and importance." crop, out of which he had to pay a tax in kind These and similar statements emanate from amounting to 90 percent of the rental. For all the local officials as they attempt to describe practical purposes, he received almost no rent the effects of the Viet Minh upon the farmers. at all and was hardly better off than the absentee Farmers who have been through the Viet Minh landlord whose land was confiscated and dis- school tend to keep to themselves their inner- tributed among the tenants. His continued most thoughts on Viet Minh practices. The titular ownership was a source of unrelieved suggestion that the fear of possible reprisal hardship to the landlord, but it served the Viet from Viet Minh agents dictates this position Minh well: he was maintained as a handy po- is only a partial explanation, according to the litical target and a source of the economic local officials. There are deeper causes. wherewithall to help keep the Viet Minh going. The assumption that a fuller or full stomach The tenant's testimony is less explicit and is the sole mainspring of a poor farmer's atti- more contradictory. He admits to the burden- tude towards a political entity is of doubtful some Viet Minh terms under which he worked validity. The Communists, who glory in the the land, but he is not often critical of his principle of economic determinism, have former masters. When the information is pieced enough appreciation of realities not to overlook together, it would appear that tenants of resi- the fact that not all realities are economic; that dent landlords paid rents ranging from 15 to noneconomic, psychological, and political fac- 20 percent of the crop, while tenants who re- tors may in the final analysis motivate man's be- ceived plots of confiscated land paid no rent at havior. It has been correctly said that "Where all to the Viet Minh. In both cases, however, political psychological motivations come into the Viet Minh imposed taxes in kind. The size conflict with desires for better economic well- of the tax burden was difficult to determine, being, the priority of the political is generally for no two accounts agreed. Some tenants stated rather clear." More specifically, ideas of equality, that it was as high as 50 percent of their output, respect, and status in the community weigh while others said it was no more than 10 per- heavily in the scales of the awakened nation- cent, depending upon the family's size. There alism which has been exploited by the Viet were occasional extra "contributions" when the Minh over the years. Illiteracy is no barrier to Viet Minh was especially hard pressed for grain, an emotional acceptance of these ideas. The Taken altogether, the inescapable impression is fact that these concepts are only tactics to be that the Viet Minh exacted a heavy price for discarded by the Communists at a later date the privilege of owning a piece of land or rent- either does not occur to the farmer or is beyond ing land from virtually dispossessed resident his comprehension. But the assiduous hawking landlords. It is the more surprising, therefore, of such palatable notions has created a "Viet to note the following comments by the anti- Minh legacy" now shared, according to esti- Viet Minh chief of a district: "The poor mates of local officials, by approximately 50 farmer, although paying 50 percent of the crop percent of the farmers of central Vietnam. This as a land tax, is much better off than the land- may, in large measure, explain the seeming lord. Thus the poor farmer has benefited from paradox of farmers who view with skepticism the Viet Minh regime. Poor farmers support the economic benefits offered them by Presi- the Viet Minh regime because its army is made dent Diem's reform shortly after they have up of poor farmers. Even if the farmers are no escaped the economic burdens imposed upon better off economically, they are much better them by the Viet Minh. off politically. They are the power in the vil- Even if these observations are perfectly lage." A variation on the same theme is con- valid, it would still be premature to conclude, tained in another comment picked at random at this early stage, that the implementation of from the observer's notebook: "Under the Viet the program is doomed to failure. It is possible Minh regime the poor farmers are in no better that the anti-Viet Minh feeling among the economic condition, but they are happy because landlords, owner cultivators, and a segment of 226 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 the tenants may yet play an important role in ample of the crude oversimplification which shifting the balance toward acceptance of Presi- presents "land reform" as a cure-all. The Coin- dent Diem's reform by the majority of tenants. munists have given currency to this particu- It would be a mistake, however, to assume this lar idea, and the idea has been uncritically would take place without strong prodding. The accepted in non-Communist circles chiefly be- program is getting off to a slow start, while the cause it offers a simple solution easily propa- Viet Minh agents and Viet Minh ideas con- gandized. The small size of holdings and rela- tinue to exert considerable influence in the tively poor soil conditions are in themselves countryside. Speeding up the program calls for warnings against the all-embracing proposition an enormous amount of effort on the part of that all benefits flow from ownership or reason- the national and local governments. This work able rental terms. Such measures, no matter how must be essentially of a political nature, if for liberally drawn, can neither increase the size of no other reason than the standoffish position of the holding nor materially raise the produc- so many of the tenants is essentially political, tivity of the soil. Yet these are fundamental. too. In order to overcome these drawbacks, "land Promulgation of the land reform ordinances reform" in central Vietnam (as in other regions by the national government was in itself a po- and other countries) must give way to "agrar- litical action. Local officials are agreed that this ian reform," a term which stands for the im- action will counter to some degree the claims provement of all economic and social institu- of the Viet Minh that they alone are the spokes- tions connected with farm life. men of the poor farmers. But the Viet Minh Rural Japan is case in point. The Japanese hold the advantages of having been the first in land distribution program has been quite suc- the field. To overcome this handicap, the na- cessful, not merely because the tenants became tional government must move beyond the mere owners of the land but chiefly because such promulgation of the reform measures. There is ownership has been accompanied by a strong no evidence that the government had whole- farm cooperative movement, a sound credit heartedly thrown itself into a continuing cam- system, and a network of highly developed paign of demonstrating its abiding interest in agricultural policies (particularly price poli- this program. Apathy is the dominant note, and cies) designed to protect the agricultural econ- the best explanation that can be offered is that omy of the country. The net result of the in- that attitude is an expression of the political centive offered by ownership plus the means vacuum so characteristic of the countryside. The of maintaining the productivity of the land at current political difficulties and the concentra- high levels have made the land reform mean- tion of all top executive effort on immediate, ingful economically, politically, and socially. urgent problems is understandable. On the Under the prevailing farm conditions in other hand, this limited land reform program central Vietnam, a farmer cannot expand the is also a political matter not unrelated to "pure" size of his holding through increased agricul- political issues. tural production. This is not an argument These observations are not aimed at an as- against land reform of a limited or wider scope; sessment of the rent reduction scheme as such, it merely stresses the fact that to this important yet it may not be out of place to note the pro- precondition must be added the other means gram's limitations. One may venture to say also for bringing about more efficient use of the that the same criticism would hold true even if land and of human resources. The marginal the Viet Minh had not staked their claim to farmers' pleas for irrigation facilities and credit being the original land reformers in Indo-China are an extension of the idea that independent, and even if the scope of the national govern- self-reliant producers and citizens are not cre- ment's measures went so far as to make land ated simply by shifting the pattern of owner- ownership and land distribution its primary ship. Unless the much improved land-rent aim. situation or even outright ownership go hand The statement is based on the very strong in hand with all the other necessary improve- impression that in the section of central Viet- ments, the farmers may not be much better off nam under review one can see an excellent ex- than they were in prereform days. In the Viet- Field Trip Observations in Central Vietnam 227 nam of today, this idea may be easily dismissed cant also is the evidence that the Communists on the ground of more urgent priorities, but were able to mobilize local talent to carry out only at the risk of a doleful shape of things to their multifarious activities. come in the country's economy and politics. It If the above observations gathered in the would be wiser for the national government to field are correct, there is cause for concern on consider this problem sometime soon before it the part of the national government regarding is too late. the current state of political activity in the countryside, or rather the lack of it. A brief visit in central Vietnam convinces one of the existence of a political vacuum as wide as the Political Note countryside we traversed. Worried officials recognize the fact that no new content is being Land reform and farm conditions are political poured into the vacuum created by the physical issues. The Russian and Chinese Communists disappearance of the Viet Minh. The province have succeeded in projecting the land problem and district offices and city streets are decorated into the very center of Asian politics. The with all kinds of slogans and homilies on the Communists have been able to capitalize on the virtues of hard work, patriotism, good citizen- landlord-tenant strife with startling success by ship, thrift, honesty, literacy, and the like. These posing as advocates of reforms for the benefit are all desirable attributes, but in the light of of the peasantry. The Viet Minh followed in the pressing realities the inescapable impres- the footsteps of their masters, successfully sion is that this sloganeering does not move preaching the same gospel. The accounts of much beyond the space the slogans fill. officials and landlords may have exaggerated The more one listens to the tales of woe of the Viet Minh's hold on the people, perhaps, in an intelligent and well-intentioned chief, the part, to underscore the magnitude of the task more one comes to believe that his office is but facing the new administrators. However, even an island within a peasant ocean, the latter when this factor is taken into consideration, the hardly affected by the former. There is no evi- persistence of ideas implanted by the Viet dence that the persistence of Viet Minh influ- Minh cannot be denied. ence has induced the national and local govern- It has been suggested that noneconomic ideas ments to attack the crucial political tasks with were largely responsible for the Viet Minh's all the urgency and seriousness they deserve. strength in the community. Their method of The often mentioned handicap, shortage of "selling" their wares was one of a tremendous trained personnel, cannot be taken seriously as and unceasing political activity which kept the an excuse. This is an unsubstantiated charge- countryside seething with excitement; even and it did not take the Viet Minh to disprove anti-Viet Minh officials and landlords expressed it. Trained personnel are not born. The Viet- grudging admiration for the Communists' or- namese do not lack the main ingredient, native ganizational ability and their political acumen intelligence; what is needed is leadership to in exploiting to the fullest advantage every ex- harness ability for the building of the new state. ploitable issue. As one official remarked: "They It will not be harnessed and put to work with made greatest political capital of the land issue, zest and dedication unless the top leadership but it was not only the land. Everything the takes the people into its confidence in words Viet Minh touched was political: the creation and in a spirit which neither overlooks the of educational facilities, repair of roads, tax harsh facts of life and the people's deeper as- collections, army behavior, or capital punish- pirations nor fails to inspire the people to a ment meted out to a 'criminal' farmer-all of willingess to come to grips with their problems these and much else were carefully explained on regardless of the cost. Mere slogans and propa- the ground of political necessity." The Viet ganda directed against the Viet Minh are not Minh were, in effect, engaged in a continuous enough to save the day in the coming battle for process of trying to convince the common Vietnam. people that their interests were identical with The chore will not be an easy one in central those of the Viet Minh and vice versa. Signifi- Vietnam. The French are responsible for the 228 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 security of that part of the country. Their pres- soldier misbehavior, some of which were trivial ence is conspicuous throughout the area. With- and others most serious. out referring to security problems, it suffices The deep concern with the position of the to say that the presence of the French army national army in the community is understand- makes it much more difficult to convince the able. They equate the national government with people that Vietnam is truly independent. its army. With the local administration uneasily Within sight of continuous traffic of French feeling its way into the village, the army could troops of many colors and origins, a Vietnamese become a powerful link between the govern- nationalist has a difficult time convincing the ment and the people. How can this be achieved, people that the Viet Minh has bartered away we asked a very troubled chief of a province? the country's independence to a foreign creed Without hesitation he replied as follows: "If espoused by Russia and China. Hence the diffi- you see President Diem upon your return to culty of the task and the need of a supreme Saigon, deliver this message in my name: What effort to put the best face on an apparent con- the national army needs today is not so much tradiction. military training as political training and of the This political problem will persist as long latter it gets none. Military training is relatively as the French are in central Vietnam, but there easy, but political training is difficult. It will be is yet another immediate problem which is successful only when the people accept the army very much on the mind of virtually every local as their own. The army will have fulfilled its official who is eager to establish closer relations mission only when the farmer invites a soldier with the farmers. This is the unfriendly attitude and treats him as another farmer's son away of the farmers toward the national army. Ac- from home." These are sentiments born of a cording to available information on the spot, tragic experience and of an appreciation of the the political arm of the Viet Minh army saw urgent political tasks and tests which lie ahead. to it that the relations between the Viet Minh There are other means of making political soldiers and the farmers were close and friendly. capital. The land reform of the national govern- In this effort the Viet Minh met with success. ment is one of those "other means" as well as The propaganda slogan that the army fights the the first attempt to translate one of the aspira- peasants' battles might not have sufficed, but tions of the farmers into political language. For the behavior of the soldier evidently carried reasons discussed elsewhere, this land reform conviction. Although they taxed the farmers and phase may fall short of the anticipated results. lived off the land, the officials would have us Hence the pressing need to raise the status of believe that many a farmer forgave the Viet the farmers by attempting to satisfy some of Minh soldier as "a father an erring son." This the human wants about which they feel so is apparently no mere figure of speech, for the keenly. Viet Minh soldier entering a farmhouse would It is not the purpose of this "political note" Vie Minhe soldrmern as "far;hus wd to outline a plan of action, although if the mother"; and the children as "brother" and picture of a village in central Vietnam is close "moter"; anwold t ealre tas "ther" aMnd to reality, then the question of what to do is "sister." It would appear that the Viet Minh fairly clear. What needs to be emphasized here admonition to their soldiers that "you are the is that the conscious and yet unsatisfied wants fish and the people are the water" was not constitute, what one writer aptly termed, "the without effect. revolution of rising expectations." In a politi- On balance, in the eyes of the people we cally conscious Vietnam engaged in a bitter talked to, the national army suffers by compari- struggle with the Viet Minh, it would be doubly son. One of the district chiefs spoke bluntly dangerous to delay indefinitely the partial reali- when he stated that "the soldiers of the na- zation-at the very least-of some of the ex- tional army maltreat the people and they natu- pectations. The price of inaction might eventu- rally do not like it. They do like the Viet Minh ally be Communist action. army, which is looked upon as a people's army This observer is not without awareness of protecting the people." To substantiate the the serious political conditions now prevailing charge, he pulled out a dossier of cases of in Vietnam: of the "state within the state" Field Trip in Southern Vietnam 229 phenomenon exemplified by the so-called re- their sense of responsibility were aroused and ligious sects; of the national government's exer- they were given opportunities to exercise it. cising only limited power in the countryside; of But to achieve that end, the national govern- provincial governments governing poorly; and ment must come closer to the people; it must of local, grass-roots administration honey- put all its cards before the people-the good, combed with Viet Minh holdovers and steeped the bad, and the very worst-and seek their in Viet Minh influence. Nor is the country in a support and advice. It must, of course, con- good economic state, depending as it does upon vincingly identify itself with the things that American economic aid to a major degree. The truly matter to the people. If that is done, the normal reaction to this state of affairs is re- pro-Viet Minh sentiments might well become luctance to seize and direct the "revolution of a memory; and the people might even come to rising expectations." The position is a mistaken understand and accept the fact that not all their one because the political vacuum cannot be deeply felt needs can be realized in short order. filled unless the questions of a more adequate The faith and hope that they are moving in the standard of living, a greater sense of security, a desired direction and are taking part in a task greater sense of freedom of participation, a in which they believe-these matter most, even deeper sense of belonging, and similar basic if the process is a slow and difficult one and the human wants are at least actively pursued. The immediate rewards are meager. availability or lack of money is indeed important, Upon return from the field trip, the writer but at this particular juncture the inspired ex- of these observations had the privilege of dis- pression of understanding these issues is of the cussing his impressions with President Diem. highest importance. Not everything must be The principal points at issue, including the role done for the people of Vietnam; there is much the president himself might play in dealing that they themselves could do by themselves if with them, have been conveyed to him. 26. Field Trip in Southern Vietnam From central Vietnam, Ladejinsky proceeded to make this undated field trip in southern Vietnam. The April 29, 1955, date of the dispatch transmitting it to Washington suggests that the field trip itself was completed in March or early April at the latest. The report finds a dismal state of affairs in the southern Vietnam countryside, with the national government held in disrespect, the local authorities lamentably weak in relation to the sects and the Viet Minh, the farmers confidently expecting the Viet Minh to return victoriously in 1956, and in general a state of "quiescent anarchy" in the "political and administrative vacuum in the countryside." Although the U.S. Department of State was able to supply the covering dispatches for this paper and the earlier one on central Vietnam, it was unable to provide the papers themselves, which had somehow been lost. These important historical notes can be presented here only because they were found among Ladejinsky's personal papers. This paper was transmitted to Washington with Dispatch 366 on April 29, 1955. Introduction and Summary part of the country was not typical of Vietnam as a whole and that the findings, if valid, may IN THE REPORT on central Vietnam, the writer not necessarily apply to other parts of the of these notes underscored the fact that that country, notably southern Vietnam. This point 230 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 was driven home by a friendly critic who sug- culture. The first thing that strikes the traveler gested that the reluctance of the tenants of only a few miles out of Saigon is the absence central Vietnam to accept President Diem's re- of the mosaic of tiny plots so characteristic of form may have been born of purely local condi- central Vietnam. The plots are large, the rice tions and that the attitude of the tenants in plains stretch into the far horizon, and it takes southern Vietnam may be quite different. In little initiation to realize that this is the region fact, on more than one occasion the central of surplus rice production. As we crossed from Vietnamese voiced the opinion that the land the province of My Tho into that of Ben Tre, reform had much greater relevance to southern and then into Can Tho and Vinh Long, the lay Vietnam, where holdings are large, where large- of the land and the cropping pattern are about scale proprietorship prevails, and where the the same, except for the presence here and triangular landlord-tenant-farm laborer struggle there of large coconut groves, notably in the for rights and positions has been acute. And so province of Ben Tre. It is this section of the we went to southern Vietnam in search of an- country where we first encountered individual swers to the following questions: Are the ten- or corporation holdings measured in thousands ants interested in President Diem's reform of hectares, some few tenants cultivating as program? Is the program being implemented? many as 5 hectares and more, and numerous Will the position of the national government farm laborers working for tenants and landlords be strengthened by the promulgation of this alike. The first two groups of farmers we reform? chanced to talk to were farmhands working in It might be stated at the outset that the find- the field. They knew nothing, or pretended to ings are even less encouraging than those of know nothing, about a land reform program central Vietnam. In southern Vietnam, too, of any kind. large groups of tenants show little interest in For the first time, too, the sects began to the reform, and its implementation has hardly assume significance more real than one normally begun. The principal causes are as follows: the derives from reading or hearing about them in agrarian activities of the Viet Minh before Saigon. When we reached the city of Can Tho, Geneva and the strong influence they continue we received our first object lesson on the "state to exercise; the inapplicability of the reform in within a state" phenomenon. When the chief the large areas controlled by the religious sects; of the province discussed his problems, he made the 15 percent rental decreed by the former no secret of the fact that, as a representative of President Nguyen Van Tam in 1953; the in- the national government, he is hemmed in on terest in land ownership rather than in rent all sides by the Hoa Hao sect and that the reduction; and, finally, the most important greatest part of this richest of provinces be- cause-the political and administrative vacuum longs to the Hoa Hao to do with as they please. in the countryside which stands in the way of The boundary between his city and the Hoa the enforcement of most measures sponsored Hao territory is just across the river, but for by the national government. This is of supreme all practical purposes it might have been a importance and no discussion of land reform in thousand miles away: He could not penetrate southern Vietnam is meaningful unless placed it even if he tried. This point is mentioned here, against the background of a woeful lack of a for the Hoa Hao sect as well as the Cao Dai reasonably authoritative administrative machine sect limit the application of the land reform and a political stagnation that leaves the coun- severely. Putting it more directly, in Cochin- tryside wide open to the enemies of the national China, which encompasses most of southern government. Vietnam, the sects account for approximately one-third of the area and the land reform ordi- nances of the national government are com- General Observations pletely disregarded there. Of course, no other form of control normally exercised by a na- Southern Vietnam and central Vietnam are two tional government applies there either. regions apart. Both are agricultural, but the Our first talks with officials and farmers sub- former is more typical of the country's agri- stantiated the roadside impressions and the Field Trip in Southern Vietnam 231 statements heard in central Vietnam that south- tenants in those days, but today they appeared ern Vietnam offers ample scope for land reform to be much better off than their opposite num- measures. In some respects, however, the two bers in central Vietnam. According to their parts of the country are alike. The first is the testimony, they not only have a sufficiency of decline in acreage under cultivation, in conse- rice for their own consumption, but a disposable quence of the civil war. We found no case surplus as well. They do not give the impression where the cultivated area now and ten years of grinding poverty, although here and there ago was about the same. In Can Tho province one sees a sight testifying to a seamy side of the rice area shrunk from 200,000 to 130,000 the life and work of the cultivator. We watched hectares, in My Tho province from 115,000 to a few tenants "plow" fairly large rice fields with 85,000 hectares, and approximately the same nothing more elaborate than a hoe. Theirs was holds true for other provinces. This does not clearly a long and arduous task undertaken for mean, however, that officials and farmers con- lack of the basic motive power of the country- cede that their provinces have surplus land for side-the buffalo. These scenes, a throwback to the settlement of refugees. This is one of the the most primitive agricultural techniques, were few points on which the two are in agreement. not a common sight; but they were, neverthe- The argument is that the temporarily abandoned less, most incongruous in the midst of the rich- land will be repossessed once a period of nor- est agricultural region of the country. malcy has finally set in. Even on the basis of these sketchy obser- The second similarity is the lack of data; on vations, it is obvious that southern Vietnam pre- the provincial, district, and village levels the sents a fertile ground for the application of a story is almost the same. Here, as in central land reform program. Large landholdings in Vietnam, approximations are the rule and they relatively few hands and a huge tenant class and may or may not be fairly accurate. It is clear, normal tenure terms which do not favor the however, that one does not deal here with one- tenant presuppose that. While no one seems acre tenants or less, or with "two by two" land- to be in a position to state how many of the lords. My Tho province is not the most typical broad acres of southern Vietnam are rented by of provinces where the biggest holdings have tenants, an estimate that they work three- been carved out in the past 60 to 70 years or so, fourths of the land is probably not far fetched. but the pattern of concentration of land owner- But even if this figure is exaggerated, it is true ship with its large tenant and land laborer that the proportion of tenanted land to the total classes is indeed there. In My Tho province a is considerably larger than in central Vietnam. big owner is measured in hundreds of hectares, The acreage per tenant is also larger, and the but in Can Tho province one corporation alone normal conditions of tenure are apparently no has title to 10,000 hectares, twelve owners di- better and no worse than in central Vietnam. viding among themselves 25,000 hectares, and Working a larger and more productive acreage, many more owning from 500 hectares and up. the tenants of southern Vietnam are in a Such concentration of ownership falls into the stronger economic position than those in central category of "big time"; it can stand comparison Vietnam, but this in no way made "land re- with other countries noted for their land owner- form" less appealing to them. It is natural that ship disparities, and it certainly dwarfs the size the state of relative well-being only whetted of the landlord holdings in central Vietnam. their appetite for further improvement. In a 'Most landlords here, whether big or small, couple of sessions with fairly large groups of rent the land to tenants; in cases where they farmers, approximately half of them spoke out manage the land themselves, they resort to hired in favor of rent reduction as the number one labor. Pre-civil war rentals varied from a low item on their list of basic needs; credit, irriga- one-third of the crop if the land was poor to tion, and drainage facilities as well as lack of half of the crop on good-quality land; farm buffaloes did not loom as important. The re- equipment, including the buffalo, was the re- verse held true in central Vietnam. How, then, sponsibility of the tenant. His net share of the do the tenants react in the face of the rent re- crop was considerably below the indicated fig- duction scheme inaugurated by the national ures. We could not judge the position of the government? 232 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 Negative Reaction to the Reform fice, which in turn must secure it from the village councils. This evidently is easier said My Tho province, only 40 miles from Saigon, than done, for so far the information is only a was our first stop and the first to provide the trickle furnished by villages which are located answer. The deputy chief of the province made close to the district office; the goings-on in the no attempt to sugarcoat existing conditions. outlying villages are anybody's guess because, as As of March 20, only a few land reform coin- one district officer put it, contact with such vil- mittee elections were held in the 116 villages lages is often avoided "for the fear of the ten- comprising the province. Since the implementa- ants." There is, however, always an official's tion of the reform is predicated on these com- reluctant estimate; when these are put together, mittees, the election failure was certainly a it might be said that, in the provinces here con- setback and the officials did not disguise their sidered, about one-third of the tenants have disappointment. When the question was raised shown an interest in the program. Whether it about the very spotty picture, the reply was to is a third or one-half or even more than that, the effect that, whereas the landlords are willing the fact remains that there are many tenants to take part in the elections, the tenants are who are as little concerned with the land re- most reluctant. How reluctant became apparent form program as are the tenants of central when we looked into this problem in the Binh Vietnam. Phan village, where an election had actually taken place. It is a village of many small land- The Landlord and the Reform owners and a large number of tenants with holdings averaging 2 hectares. The village coun- At first glance the readiness of the landlords to cil felt that it has done its duty and by way of accept the reform may seem surprising because proof displayed the name lists of landowners its implementation would cut down their share and tenants who participated in the elections. of the crop from one-half to 25 or even 15 per- A quick counting of heads revealed that the cent of the crop. The explanation of this seem- first totaled sixty-six and the second forty-three, ing paradox is not far to seek. During the long or 50 percent more landowners than tenants. civil war period, the landlords of southern Viet- When this peculiar reversal of the normal- nam collected little or no rent from their ten- fewer landowners and more tenants-was called ants. Certainly the big landlords, who dis- to the council's attention, it developed that of appeared from the villages for security reasons, the more than 300 tenants in the village only collected no rent at all. The smaller ones, hav- forty-three have seen fit to take part in the ing remained in the villages, received only such elections; most of the landlords, on the other token rents as were permitted by the Viet Minh. hand, entered their names and were at the polls Eight months have passed since Geneva, but on election day. the situation has not undergone any material With relatively minor variations, the story change for the resident or for the absentee. appeared to be the same in the provinces of Some landlords have had the courage to visit Ben Tre, Can Tho, and Vinh Long: either no and inquire into their holdings. The receptions elections at all or elections poorly attended by vary: In villages close to the seat of authority the tenants and well represented by the land- they are likely to collect some rent, but in vil- lords. In late March no provincial office had lages not within effective administrative control detailed information on the election of the com- they receive only a cold shoulder. Moreover, mittees, the first basic step towards the enforce- some tenants are known to have refused to ment of the reform program. The chief of acknowledge the landlord's right to the land. Vinh Long province went so far as to say that, The reason for this fundamental departure from to date, he had no reaction at all from the the traditional landlord-tenant relationship will peasants of the forty-eight villages which made be dealt with in another paragraph, but that it up his province. His contact with the villages has come about has not been lost on the land- was limited in the extreme, and not because of lords. Taking a practical view of the situation lack of interest on his part. The provincial office and attempting to salvage what they can, they depends for its information on the district of- are understandably eager to settle for a rental Field Trip in Southern Vietnam 233 of 15 to 25 percent of the crop. They are moti- This is the more surprising since President Tam vated by a still more significant consideration: never attempted to enforce his program. The In accepting the rental terms of the reform, fact remains, however, that some of the tenants their title to the land is given full recognition. we met used it as an argument against President The importance of this stems from the fact that Diem's "exorbitant" rentals of 15 to 25 per- many a tenant has come to look upon his rented cent of the crop. land as if it were his own. In short, while in This range has been a source of much con- the pre-Viet Minh days the landlords would cern to local officials; and at least one of them, have viewed President Diem's reform as a dia- Nguyen Van Hoi, chief of the province of Ben bolic plot against them, in the spring of 1955 Tre, decided to clarify the issue in his own way. they are ready to make the best of an admittedly On February 2, 1955, he called together a group difficult situation. What troubles them is the of tenants and landlords and worked out with thought that their willingness to adhere to them the following compromise: If one hectare President Diem's reform is no guarantee that of land produces less than 40 units (a unit the issue is settled. One landlord spoke for many equal to 40 liters), no rent is to be paid; if less when, in reply to the question whether he is than 80 units, the rental is to be 15 percent of ready to accept the reform, stated: "Yes, I shall the crop; if the yield is above 80 units, the ten- be happy to sign the contract but my tenants ant must pay 25 percent of the crop. won't." Mr. Hoi displayed commendable initiative, and the scheme he devised is weighted in favor The Tenant and the Reform of the tenants. In normal conditions-in condi- tions which would enable him to exercise real Not so with the tenants. The very reasons which administrative authority in his province-the induce a landlord to favor the reform cause refinement of the rental provision would have many tenants to look upon it with disfavor. In been a sound measure towards the enforcement the years of the Viet Minh domination-and of the entire program. In reality, Mr. Hoi re- they ruled the countryside in southern Vietnam alizes that his action will not meet the situa- as effectively as in central Vietnam-the ten- tion-not until he can effectively extend his ants' rent was, as distinct from the tax levies, authority beyond the city of Ben Tre and the about 15 percent when the landlord was around few villages close to the city. At the time of our to collect it. Many, as noted above, did not visit he readily admitted that neither his pro- bother collecting any. Important too, is the fact vincial office nor his district offices were in a that the Viet Minh have distributed some of position to enforce measures emanating from the land among the tenants. For them to have him or from the national government. Therein to pay rental on such land is particularly dis- lies one of the crucial problems that impedes tasteful. The physical departure of the Viet the progress of the land reform program in Minh has not changed the tenants' attitude to- southern Vietnam. ward the landlord; the tenant is still very much The program suffers not only from the nega- under the Viet Minh influence, as will be tive stand taken by the tenants, such as refusal pointed out at some length in another connec- to participate in the elections; occasionally this tion. negativism assumes the form of a "positive" The negative position of a good many ten- demonstration against the reform. Thus in a ants toward President Diem's reform stems few villages of Ben Tre province the tenants from yet another cause. In June 1953, President appeared at the polls as organized groups-and Diem's predecessor, President Tam, decreed a then refused to vote in protest against the elec- rent reduction program which called for a rental tions and the land reform in general. of 15 percent of the crop regardless of the pro- It is still too early to judge what this passive ductive capacity of a given plot of land. It is or active disinterestedness on a part of an un- interesting to note that, while most tenants dis- known number of tenants will do to the pro- claimed much knowledge of the principal provi- gram. There are simply no reliable data-or sions of President Diem's reform, not a few hardly any data-to help one form a reasonably knew about President Tam's 15 percent rental. correct opinion of the progress to date. Willy- 234 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 nilly one must resort to such unorthodox indices is subject to serious qualifications. To the local as the "long" faces of the officialdom and the administration, however, the reluctance is one mien of the farmers which betrays none of the more expression of the farmers' tendency to enthusiasm associated with a long-awaited goal avoid direct contact with the government about to be achieved. If these criteria are per- wherever and whenever possible. missible under the circumstances, the land re- All of this points to cleavage between the form in southern Vietnam has a long and hard government and the farmers. The existence of row to hoe. this condition is one of the most vivid impres- sions of the trip. Officials contributed to this The Farmers versus the Government by their outspoken reflections on the state of affairs in the provinces, while farmers con- One of the encouraging features of the trip tributed more by their inactivity rather than by through southern Vietnam was that the chiefs of what they said or did. This apartness of the the provinces were wide awake to the condi- farmer is barely discernible near the seat of tions prevailing in the areas they are supposed government; but, once outside of the immediate to administer. They could have painted a silver reach of authority, it is by all accounts unde- lining in their sad accounts of their steward- niable. One high official used the term "an- ships, but they eschewed that. They gave the archy" to describe the realities in the country- impression of people anxious to unburden side of southern Vietnam. "Quiescent anarchy" themselves and let the chips fall where they might be more accurate. On the surface every- may. What they were saying did not reflect thing is quiet: no flag waving, no open exhorta- their success as administrators; but as the chief tions to disobedience, and no reported shoot- of Vinh Long province put it, "Since you are ings of any kind to force the farmers' will upon not after appearance, I shall call your attention the government. Nor does the government use to the realities, painful though they are." force to make the farmers do its bidding. Each What are those realities? one is left to his or its own devices. The net The principal one, as the administrators see result is what another much-concerned official it, is the "ugly" mood and behavior of the called "immobilisme," that is to say-no for- farmers who live and work outside the pre- ward motion! cincts of the religious sects and are theoreti- cally subject to the control of the national gov- Causes and Remedies ernment. This behavior antedates President Diem's reform; the latter brought it only into The inevitable questions that come to one's sharper focus. Their unwillingness to pay taxes, mind are: How did this state of affairs come for instance, is another facet of the same prob- about, and what can be done to remedy the lem. This has an immediate and crippling ef- situation? fect on budgetary requirements all along the The first question has been partly answered, line. When two opposing forces are ranged but it can stand repeating. Prior to Geneva the against each other, the charges and counter- farmers in southern Vietnam as in central Viet- charges may be wide of the mark. This may be nam had to contend with two forces-the true of the charge of the chief of My Tho French and the Viet Minh. They lived in fear province that he will collect from the farmers of both-and this applied even to those who only 2 percent of the estimated 1954 tax bill. accepted the Viet Minh leadership. Now, so It may turn out ten or fifteen times that, but the story goes, they have no fear at all of the the point he made remains valid. Farmers deny national government, which has supplanted the the charge, but their statements carried no con- French and the Viet Minh. This is an over- viction and they were unable or unwilling to simplified version of what has actually taken produce receipts in support of their contention. place. It is true that the French are out of the Another item is cited that bespeaks the same picture in South Vietnam, but it is not true attitude: this is their alleged refusal to furnish that the influence and the fear of the Viet Minh paid labor for public work. Since we observed have come to an end. If the information farmers repairing public roads, the above charge gathered is at all correct, the Viet Minh leader- Field Trip in Southern Vietnam 235 ship in the village councils is greater than in that direction is that the national government central Vietnam and shows no signs of dimin- must stop being too lenient, like a kindly father ishing. Orders are still being issued and obeyed, spoiling his children. The government must and no anti-Viet Minh farmer is willing to give the local authorities real power to deal stick his neck out in opposition to the Commu- with the Viet Minh agents. Failing that, even nists. Much of the Viet Minh activity is geared anti-Viet Minh farmers don't believe that the to 1956. A report on some negotiations for government can extend them security. The task the sale of land, presented to us in the office of of tracking down the Communists becomes the chief of Can Tho province, illustrates the impossible." point. The land prices there are relatively low These ideas have been reiterated by all our and a few tenants had agreed to buy the land official contacts. They all discarded the notion they have been renting from the landowner. At of "authority" without a show of strength and the last moment the deal fell through; the local the means to back it up. Nguyen Van Dinh, Viet Minh "advised" the would-be buyers to chief of Vinh Long province, cited his own ex- save their money, for come 1956 the land perience in support of this point. He decided would be theirs for the asking. As with the to put into practice the force idea in the vil- purchase of land, so with President Diem's land lages of his province. With this in mind, he reform, with paying taxes, and with much else stationed six soldiers in every village, thereby that constitutes the normal pattern of relations trying to give "backbone" to the anti-Viet between a government and its people. No use Minh farmers in general. The soldiers are still signing a contract or taking on an obligation, there, but they are the laughing stock of the however legitimate, or closely associating with villages; Mr. Dinh could furnish only two rifles the government when in 1956 entirely new ar- for each unit, and the rifles are all of World rangements will prevail. The "1956 wait-and- War I vintage. The soldiers, he noted ruefully, seeism" line of propaganda is undoubtedly serv- are afraid to discharge them for the fear that ing to draw a formidable barrier between the they might blow up along with the rifles. When government and the farmers. The local authori- asked why he could not provide them with more ties know this; they recognize that if the course formidable armament, he replied that his ap- is not reversed the political fortunes of free peals to the national government through Vietnam may be gravely affected. proper channels have never been acknowledged. The obvious question we raised with the And this, incidentally, is a major complaint of local authorities was: "Do you combat this every chief of province. They are all ready to trend, and, if so, how?" exhibit numerous communications to the Without exception they stated frankly that central government but have little to show in they do not, although ideas on how to combat response. Their link with the villages is indeed the "invisible enemy" were not lacking. Nguyen tenuous, but it is evidently not too strong with Van Ke, chief of My Tho province, in an the top either. early morning breakfast session delivered him- To insure for the farmers security from the self of the following observations: "The influ- Viet Minh mistreatment is indeed a prime ence of the Viet Minh is very great and we are prerequisite in any successful attempt to un- not really opposing them in the village. You dermine the Communist domination of the need no army to spread your ideas. A few countryside. However, naked force even in the agents in a village is enough, and of these the form of soldiers with modern rifles is only a Viet Minh has enough. Their main theme is small part of the answer, and this the local au- that they will be back in 1956 despite the thorities appreciate very well. They turn their French and the Americans. This colors the atti- attention to other means. The first mentioned rude of the farmers to a point that they follow is the possible role of propaganda, but they dis- the directions of the Viet Minh, and the village miss it in the same breath. They felt that the councils are largely pro-Viet Minh just as they people were fed up with propaganda and were before Geneva. Our real problem is to promissory notes on the future. Besides, "Any- convince the people that the Viet Minh will thing we can promise," said Colonel Nguyen not return to power in 1956. The first step in Khanh, chief of Can Tho province and military 236 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 commander of the western sector, "can be out- results they have on the position of the national promised by the Viet Minh more convincingly, government in much of South Vietnam. The and they are under no obligation to perform local authorities cannot actively concern them- whereas we must make good our promises." selves with the sects. They are powerless to They are all agreed that one of the important treat with the villages and would not dream of keys to the question of authority that would tangling up with the organized force of the carry weight with the people is to convince sects. All they could do was to call the observer's them that the government is stable and is here attention to one more important item the na- to stay for a long time to come. To be effective, tional government must deal with in order to mere reiteration that the government is stable insure for the countryside conditions under will not do. It is this observer's impression that which a land reform and other measures would the local authorities themselves are not con- have a better chance of implementation. vinced that the Diem government is here to When we consider the recent and current stay. The people know (and Colonel Khanh political developments and the further weaken- knows only too well) that, although he is in ing of the national government, the suggestions command of 9,000 nationalist troops, he is not so far on how to regain the countryside have the master of his province. The province is a touch of unreality about them. And yet the largely in the hands of the Hoa Hao sect, and local authorities realize that sometime soon a he is only a mere reminder of the existence of firmer link between the farmers and the govern- the national government. This fact alone would ment must be forged. And that link must re- impose a severe strain upon the local authori- volve around the land question. Independently ties if they were faced with the task of selling of each other, three out of the four chiefs of the people the idea that they represent a stable provinces expressed the belief that, since rent and lasting government. reduction holds out little promise for a good The sect problem is indeed one of the great many tenants, a land ownership program might and unfortunate realities referred to earlier. be in order. This is one area where the national More than the Viet Minh, at the moment, these government could outdo-let alone outpromise "religiously enlightened bandits" are the open -the Viet Minh; the fact is that the Viet Minh challenge to everything which stands for good engaged in relatively little land distribution, government, and then literally and figuratively and the bulk of the land is still owned by the lie athwart any possible re-creation of a gov- landlords. ernment with authority in the cities and in the Months back the government had expressed countryside. This explains why Colonel Khanh its intention to do just that after the imple- would rather talk about the Hoa Han and Cao inentation of the rent reduction scheme. Dai sects than the Viet Minh. So far as he was Whether it is willing or capable to initiate that concerned, the elimination of the sects as a kind of a program is a matter not quite ger- military power is the only possible stepping mane to these observations. What needs to stone to the successful solution of the problems, be pointed out here is that the Vietnamese offi- including the Viet Minh, discussed earlier. His cials in the field, civilian and military, under- account of the growth of the sects, the major stand that the political fortunes of Vietnam are role the French played in the past decade in inextricably tied up with the countryside. Mr. raising them to the present position of promi- Hoi of Ben Tre province has his hands full nence, the treatment of the farmers under the with the rent reduction ordinances. And yet he control of the sects-all this and more is part spoke most unbureaucratically when he said: of another story. What should be underscored "The ordinances are not meeting with success, here is that the land reform and its relation to but they deal with land and so they are my only authoritative, stable government is tied up not contact with the people. They may not like only with the Viet Minh but with the sects as the provisions of the program, but land is on well. Without in any way underestimating the their mind and it gives me a chance to talk to already baleful effects of the Communist cells in them. I cannot talk propaganda to them." For the villages, their tasks are made easier because a firm contact with the people and to lessen the of the presence of the sects and the paralyzing vulnerability of the Communists, he strongly Field Trip in Southern Vietnam 237 advocated a land ownership and land distribu- his own words, he wanted "an economic and tion scheme. social revolution" in order to arouse the gov- Colonel Khanh of Can Tho province is ernment, the army, and the people from lethargy young, intelligent, every inch the military man, and stagnation and into purposeful activity so with heavy military and civil responsibilities, that the political and administrative vacuums Before, during, and after dinner he was given might be filled with political ingredients con- vent to his pent-up emotions about all manner mensurate with the problems facing free Viet- of things: about his government which tied nam. him down with strict instructions not to en- gage in any armed dispute with the Hoa Hao sect; about his government which he believes Conclusion to be quite inactive and has demonstrated little interest in the area he has been entrusted with; Such, in the main, are our impressions of the about his consuming hatred of the Hoa Hao, trip through four provinces of South Vietnam for there he was with 9,000 troops yet so boxed in search for information on President Diem's in by the sect that he could cross a bridge only reform program. Normally, this great farm area, at the pleasure of Hoa Hao troops guarding it; with a high degree of concentration of land about the Americans who decreed, so he stated, and a high tenancy, should be fertile ground that his force be cut by 54 percent as a means for the scheme. But times are not normal, the of reducing and yet strengthening the national implementation of the reform is barely off the army-a procedure he could not fathom at all;, ground, and its ultimate realization is highly and finally about the Communists who infil- questionable. The countryside, partly enslaved trated the rural districts and much else besides. by the religious sects which are laws unto them- In all of this he perceived grave danger to the selves and partly dominated by the invisible yet survival of Vietnam. But his enemies are the ever-present Communist Viet Minh, is tense Hoa Hao and the Viet Minh, the latter an and waiting. And in between the sects and the enemy with a "principle," the former an enemy Communists are the local authorities represent- always looking for the highest bidder. He felt ing the national government. They are not au- that in a pinch and for a price they would not thorities in the real sense of the word, for their disdain to rejoin the Viet Minh, despite their power to govern is so limited as to be almost alleged religious scruples. nonexistent; and the sects, the Communists, and Colonel Khanh knows that "land for the the farmers behave accordingly. landless" had been one of the most potent The great impediment to the land reform slogans of the Communists in wrestling political outside of the sect areas is unquestionably the power from a government already in power. Viet Minh farm policies before Geneva. For He watched the process in Indochina, and he this reason alone the program of the national had the advantage of a visit in the Philippines government was bound to suffer from the loss where he observed the struggle against the of novelty and impact. The other handicap lies Huks. His solution, therefore, and before it is in the Viet Minh's continued hammering that too late, is not unlike that of Mr. Hoi: namely, in 1956 all of Vietnam will be theirs. Little a program based on the slogan of "land for the wonder that even the anti-Viet Minh farmers landless." This, as he put it, "is the stone with must keep their second thoughts a deep, dark which to kill two birds"-the Hoa Hao and the secret-unless the local authorities are in a Communists. As he saw it, the Hoa Hao sect is position to provide them with security and with the authentic exploiter and rack-renter of Viet- the conviction that President Diem's govern- nam, and the subjugated peasantry would rise ment is here to stay. This, by their own admis- to the occasion and support the liberators. To sion, they are not capable of doing. Were they achieve his end quickly he expressed himself in a position to demonstrate convincingly both against a belated, carefully worked out program, propositions, President Diem's program would with all sides satisfied, all the "t's" crossed, and be acceptable even by the pro-Viet Minh farm- the "i's" dotted. He wanted action without ers, let alone the anti-Viet Minh or the "neu- delay, even at the price of temporary chaos. In tralist" fence-sitters. The fact that in the years 238 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 of civil strife the tenants paid little rent would must record the fact that nothing is taking not have weighed so heavily in their calculation place there that might reverse the disturbing (Viet Minh also levied taxes) when set against trend of events. the reasonable terms of the reform in question. The precondition cited above cannot be cre- The comparison has become unfavorable only ated overnight. But a beginning must be made. when considered within the context of the other In the "Field Trip Observations in Central Viet- all-important conditions and circumstances nam," the writer of these notes attempted to which have little to do with President Diem's state what the national government might do program as such. The obvious lesson is that no to lay the foundation for a closer relationship program, however technically perfect, can be between itself and the people. His experience implemented in conditions of political stagna- in South Vietnam demonstrates the urgency of tion and administrative vacuum, that need even more dramatically. The realities . Mr. Hoi and Colonel Khanh are quite right are that the sects overtly and the Communists in advocating a land ownership and land redis- covertly dominate that part of the country. In tribution program. The national government a country such as Vietnam, it is peasant sup- has recognized its inevitability and sooner or port or no support at all. The status quo, later, whether with alacrity or not, the matter which to date means little or no peasant sup- will have to come up for active consideration. port, plays into the hands of the enemy and When it does, the politicians willing, the tech- may eventually lead to a political debacle. The nicians can devise a reasonable program. There Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese friends of the is the danger, however, that if the political country must find ways of enhancing the pres- basket of worms of present-day Vietnam is not tige of the national government and helping it cleaned up, either through Colonel Khanh's find a common ground with the people. "economic and social revolution" directed from This assistance may well begin by a clear the top or through other actions which go be- demonstration that President Diem is the un- yond the self-deluding temporary "deals," the disputed "boss" of Saigon, a development which, national government may find itself once again if realized, would have incalculable value reach- all dressed up in very elaborate finery but with ing out beyond Saigon. He must be encouraged no place to go. The above is not intended as an to take hold of bold measures even if termed argument against action that might help the by some "revolutionary," and one of those may government to wean away the farmer from the in time spell out an agrarian reform which Viet Minh influence or undermine the position would not be to the liking of the landlords at of the sects in their fiefdoms. It merely intends all but acceptable to a grateful multitude of to stress that at this particular time the over- farmers. In suggesting this, one must not lose riding problem is one of achieving the essential sight of the distinct possibility that if the na- precondition for the successful implementation g , otr tional government doesn't do it, the "others" of any worthwhile economic, social, or political will do it and set the countryside ablaze. We reform. That beginning of all wisdom is a know who the "others" are. Once a start has strong, authoritative, and acceptable govern- ment at all levels of administration-from the been made on the road towards a creative state seat of government in Saigon to the village the sects can be mastered; and the fairly widely councils in the countryside. This is, of course, accepted inevitability theory of a Communist a truism; but an observer recently back from victory in 1956 may turn out to be a dragon South Vietnam cannot emphasize it too strongly with drawn teeth. If, on the other hand, noth- or repeat it too often. One may well take the ing far-reaching is ventured, not even against trouble of shouting about it from the house- the gangsters of Saigon, on the theory that one tops. At stake are not so much the land reform must not "rock the boat," then the "quiescent program or the American economic aid but the anarchy" in the countryside is indeed explain- very survival of free Vietnam. This observer able; the failure to accept President Diem's re- does not share the view of those writers who form understandable; and a revolution from the contend that the countryside is a case of "all bottom rather than a controlled one from the hope abandoned." It is not that yet, but one top is perhaps inevitable. A Visit with President Ngo Dinh Diem 239 27. A Visit with President Ngo Dinh Diem This is a memorandum of conversation which Ladejinsky prepared for U.S. Ambassador Reinhardt after a meeting with President Diem on June 1, 1955. The discussion ranged widely from land reform to refugee resettlement to local administration and other matters. It is clear that this was merely the latest of a number of similar discussions he had had with the president, with whom he had obviously established an easy and direct relation and gained the all-important "acceptance." Historians may find this insight into Diem's thinking during that period of more than slight interest. The paper also illustrates the useful intermediary role technical personnel can sometimes play in political situations. Ladejinsky's memorandum of conversation with President Diem was addressed to Ambassador Reinhardt on June 7 and transmitted to Washington as Dispatch 453 on June 15, 1955. AT THE INVITATION of President Ngo Dinh tion of fears, and in the creation of a sense of Diem, I called on him on June 1 to report on belonging and oneness with the national gov- the latest agrarian developments. In the course ernment are not actively received on the of the visit, which lasted from 5:00 to 6:30 grounds of other pressing business. One gets P.M., a number of other topics were touched the impression that the ominous fact that, in upon such as settlement of refugees on land, most instances, the people and the administra- local administration, the struggle with religious tors are still poles apart does not loom large sects, and the U.S. position in regard to France as a truly serious matter. The urgency of ig- and Vietnam. Recalling previous visits, the wide niting the spark that would inspire the people range of topics, mostly raised by the president to greater deeds on behalf of an independent himself, did not surprise me; there was one and free Vietnam is not apparent. item, however, which was altogether novel to The president is confident of settling the me: I have in mind the President's statement Hoa Hao issue on his terms through negotia- that Japan should pay reparations to Vietnam tions, if the outcome is the disestablishment of for the harm Japan inflicted upon the country the Hoa Hao army organization, or by force of during the occupation. arms if necessary. The defeat of the Binh Xuyen By way of comment, it may be pointed out and the neutralization of the Cao Dai has given at the outset that President Diem does not in- him confidence. He is not overly concerned tend to effect any drastic changes in the agrar- about the French, although he continues to de- ian reform field and in local administration; plore their tactics. He spoke of the French in- he may take a harder look at the critical refugee transigeance more in sorrow than in anger. As resettlement problem; but, in the main, the to the U.S. position in regard to France and president's attention is riveted to the immediate Vietnam, the President appeared to be both day-to-day internal political developments, the understanding and grateful. struggle with the Hoa Hao sect being the I found the president in a relaxed and self- center of the piece. While such issues continue confident mood. He did not minimize the cru- to dominate the scene, he is inclined to look cial problems facing free Vietnam; but, while upon most other problems as essentially periph- three months ago he was unmistakably a much eral. Suggestions that might result in a closer worried leader about to enter a period of trial government-people relationship, in the dissipa- of strength with his numerous opponents, now 240 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 he could speak, as he did, with quiet self- let him try his hand at it for a while longer. assurance born of recent successful tests. He The president's reluctance to review the issue did not, for example, underestimate the serious- with all the care it deserves may be traced also ness of the involvement with the Hoa Hao; but to, what appears to me, a lack on his part of a he reminded the listener with quiet satisfaction truly abiding concern with this matter. I am that three months ago he was faced with the not prepared to say whether the president's at- 'united front" opposition of the Binh Xuyen, titude stems from the fact that he is not a Cao Dai, and the Hoa Hao, whereas now he was "land reformer," or that the more pressing day- concerned with the latter only. In one other to-day issues bordering on the very survival of familiar respect he did not change: He still his government have primacy in his thinking prefers to talk rather than listen. Nevertheless, and his effort to the exclusion of much else, this time he seemed to have relaxed this presi- including agrarian reform. Whatever the real dential prerogative in favor of a balanced give- reason, this much can be said with certainty: and-take. On the occasion of this talk, as during all pre- The nature of my report was threefold: The vious talks, the land reform problems did not sad state of the agrarian reform; the poor prog- appear to loom large in his scheme of things. ress of settling refugees on land, and the prob- As to the settlement of refugees on land, lems presented by local administration, the president was informed that as of the end As to the agrarian reform, I told the presi- of May few refugees had been settled on land; dent that the appointment of a minister for by this is meant settlement in the sense that agrarian reform was certainly a step in the a refugee willing to farm has more than shelter right direction but that, to date, the reform is and a garden patch, namely, well-demarcated not off the ground and that there are no indi- holdings of their own, with farm tools and ani- cations that the situation will undergo a favor- mal power to put the land to use. I pointed out able change in the immediate future. I pointed to him that most of the farming by the refugees out why the tenants show no interest in his in this crop season, commencing with the rains, program, the potent influence of the Commu- will have to be delayed until the crop season nists in this connection, the preference for of 1956. The refugee problem being close to land ownership to rent reduction, and the po- the heart of the President, he was visibly dis- litical and administrative vacuum in the coun- turbed by the account and prospects. It is my tryside which prevents the enforcement of most impression that he had not been fully aware measures sponsored by the national govern- of these developments. I explained to him that ment. I took the liberty of suggesting to the I have not been too close to the problem and president that, if his government is to make that I do not know all of the reasons for the any political capital of the agrarian reform, delay; I did point out that perhaps the basic then the time has come to reexamine the entire one, a firm evaluation of the total acreage problem in the light of the current state of available for settlement, its location, and quality affairs. More specifically, I suggested (a) that, has not been made and that this is the first as long as the program is in being, the chiefs order of business if the program is to be suc- of the provinces in the nonsect areas be held cessfully implemented. With that in view, I responsible for the implementation of the pro- suggested to the president that he immediately grain and (b) a national conference of the appoint a small commission with instructions interested parties with an eye to determining and powers to determine the land availability, whether the existing program can be imple- based on the commission's firsthand observa- mented or whether it should be abandoned tions in the field. I suggested a time limit of altogether and a land ownership and land dis- one month and assured him that the mission tribution program devised in its stead. (FOA [Foreign Operations Administration]) The president did not dispute the impasse will be happy to render its technical assistance reached by his program, but he does not intend to this urgently needed survey. The president to give the land reform question a national responded favorably. Whether he will act ac- hearing. He has confidence in his new minister cordingly or, having discussed the matter with of agrarian reform and is evidently willing to appropriate agencies, will act in favor of an- A Visit with President Ngo Dinh Diem 241 other method of moving refugees on land re- government in the business of creating a new mains to be seen. Whatever his future course state, basing this approach on the govern- of action, he is fully cognizant that the perma- ment's convincing appreciation of the people's nent solution of the refugee problem is yet to fundamental needs. I attempted to impress upon take shape and that further delays may post- him that he more than any other Vietnamese pone the solution indefinitely. is in a position to articulate these ideas, which As to local administration, I stated that, with in the long run should prove to be the effective few exceptions, it is ineffective and that no weapon against the Viet Minh and for the sta- application of any national legislation is possi- bility of Vietnam. But now, as in the past, the ble unless the administrators themselves become president pleaded extreme preoccupation with conscious of the fact that a free and independent urgent matters. Vietnam demands of them a zeal and zest of As usual, the sect problem came in for con- performance over and beyond the customary. siderable comment. The president knew of my I expressed the view that the real difficulty with visit to Tay Ninh only a few days ago and of the administrators is not their lack of formal my meeting with Pham-Cong Tac, the "pope" public administration training but rather the of the Cao Dai sect. I told the president that lassitude, disinterestedness, and seeming failure for once I was not a bearer of bad news, since to sense or comprehend the critical transitional the pope stated (a) that although he opposes period Vietnam is passing through. I made the President Diem he intends to eschew politics; point that, just as the national army is in need (b) that he favors the elimination of the army of political training, the administrators are as a military arm of the Cao Dai; and (c) that surely in the same need. The president coun- from now on he, the pope, was going to devote tered by saying that this problem has been on himself to the propagation of the Universal his mind, that he ordered the delegate for Church, which in his opinion is synonymous South Vietnam to prepare a secret report on with Cao Dai. local administration, and that the findings justi- The president took this good humoredly, re- fled his worst fears. However, he did not be- marking on the pope's past criminal foibles and lieve he can deal with the problem outside of total unreliability. He agreed, however, that the the overall issues relating to the country's paci- pope's new line-even if only a "line"-was fication and stabilization. Serious though the out of the question three months ago when he administration question is, for the time being was the guiding spirit of the "united front" he intended to leave it in the hands of the three opposition to the president. He agreed also that delegates of Vietnam. the pope's relative inactivity and his loss of The visitor did not argue the presidential army control was indeed a dividend of the suc- preference, nor did he tell him of his most cessful fight against the Binh Xuyen. The divi- recent experience in one of the most important dend is bigger than that, according to the provinces of South Vietnam, where a new chief President: He is of the opinion that the Cao of province appointed by the delegate is un- Dai army is decidedly on his side and that by mistakenly anti-Diem, antireform, and pretty integrating 8,000 of the best Cao Dai troops, much anti-everything that spells deviating from the remainder, which he estimates at no more the current state of inaction. than 3,000 to 5,000, is no threat to him. He I did tell the president that the standoffish could have them whenever he wanted them, attitude of the farmers toward the government and he had no immediate plans for incorpo- is not unrelated to the local administration; rating the nonintegrated Cao Dai forces into above all, I suggested that it is closely related the national army. to the weak link between the national govern- With the Binh Xuyen almost eliminated ment and the farmers. I elaborated on an and the Cao Dai army leaders pledging their earlier statement under somewhat similar cir- support to the national government, the presi- cumstances and suggested that the president dent spoke with confidence of the struggle with himself might devote some time to help cre- the Hoa Hao sect. They were a dangerous are among the farmers a sense of freedom of enemy, he thought, but he was sure of victory if participation, a sense of belonging with the the Hoa Hao should accept open battle. They 242 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 were dangerous as guerilla fighters and as ter- activities. To President Diem, social service in rorizers of the countryside. Another aspect of this instance is but a "euphemism for a new his struggle against this sect that gave him armed force the pope wishes to create, now pause was the fact that he was compelled to that the Cao Dai army has slipped out of his divest some sections of the country of its troops. control." He was firmly of the opinion that the He mentioned specifically the PMS (Pays French have a hand in the armed rebellion of Montagnards du Sud)-the ex-Bao Dai strong- the Hoa Hao, and at this point he delivered hold; it appeared that most of the imperial himself of this apparent oversimplification of guard troops are in the south facing the Hoa French views and attitudes: "The French are Hao. In answer to the question if the fight property-minded people; with Vietnam politi- against the sect calls for a military decision, the cally stable, the value of their property is bound president replied in the affirmative; but he to go up; with Vietnam unstable, the value of stated also that he was ready to negotiate if it their property suffers accordingly. What pur- resulted in a peaceful elimination of the mili- pose then do the French serve in helping to tary power of the sect and if the elimination keep the country in turmoil?" I did not com- is not to add measurably to the personal fortunes ment on this statement, nor did the President of the Hoa Hao generals. In this connection, he offer an answer to his own query. He merely reminded the visitor of a remark he made three concluded on the note that the French are poor months ago, namely, that the political stability losers, that their disruptive tactics will prove of Vietnam cannot be achieved unless the mili- to no avail, and that the era of amicable tary power of the sects is eliminated. "Only Franco-Vietnam relations is still in the future. then," he continued with a touch of irritation, The president spoke warmly of the Ameri- 'will I be in a position to pay greater attention can attitude toward Vietnam, but he also re- to the numerous other problems involved in the marked that the United States is so heavily creation of a politically and economically involved in Europe and is so anxious to main- strong national state." His remarks were inter- tain friendly relations with France that it can- spersed with praise of the national army, and not see the French position in Vietnam as the he spoke disparagingly of the French who Vietnamese see it. He added laughingly that he questioned the loyalty of the army to the na- may be expecting too much. tional government. The listener was all ears, It is worth noting that sometime back he for he well-remembered the president's un- spoke with asperity of Americans in Saigon flattering comments on his army not long be- who, so he said, didn't understand him and fore it became obvious that the government whom he, too, failed to understand. He com- and the sects were rapidly approaching a show- plained without being specific that Americans down. On that occasion the visitor suggested gave him contradictory advice and that they that with a strong national army he could deal . o with the sects singly or collectively, depending wre occ,sin subjetin hi to sho upontheshap ofthins a a gvenmomet, creatment," offering suggestions at the last mo- upon the shape of things at a given moment. mrtwe en ogrhdtm o aeu His comment was: "Ah, the national army, an ment when he no longer had time for careful army of married soldiers .." consideration of them. I carried away the strong The president was not nearly as bitter about impression that whatever may have given rise the French as was his custom in the past, but to those views, he hardly shares them now. he was not friendly either. He does not give When I thanked the president for his consid- much credence to the official pronouncements eration, especially since I had seldom anything that the French do not interfere in the internal cheerful to contribute, he replied that Ameri- affairs of Vietnam. To illustrate his point, he cans have a way of stating their views straight- mentioned the fact that very recently the French forwardly, which he appreciates even though he furnished the pope with a million piastres. He may not agree with them. In general, the thought the sum was far in excess of the offi- United States was the part when the president cially acknowledged figure, and he spoke with was at his most mellow and friendly. derision of the French explanation that the I was halfway downstairs, on my way out, money was intended for the pope's social service when the President called me back. He ex- South Vietnam Revisited 243 pressed his regrets for detaining me and asked whether his government has given this problem to bring up a point which had been on his serious thought. He inquired into Japan's ca- mind for some little time. He began by asking pacity to pay reparations and I replied that me what I knew of reparations exacted from Japan's economic position is a precarious one, Japan by countries under its occupation. I told although the outward appearances seem to belie him that I was not well informed on the sub- it; that Japan makes both ends meet only with ject and added that Japan had settled the repa- the financial aid of the United States; and that, rations problem with Burma and has been ne- generally speaking, reparations as a method of gotiating for some time with the Philippines settling international disputes should be sub- and Indonesia. He proceeded then to tell me ject to most careful scrutiny. He did not pursue that Japan ought to pay reparations to Vietnam the subject further, and I was happy to be re- for the damages caused the country during the lieved of the discussion of this unexpected and occupation. He didn't mention any figures nor potentially troublesome subject. 28. South Vietnam Revisited Uncertain about the reliability of the small sampling on which his two earlier papers on central and southern Vietnam had been based, Ladejinsky made three additional sorties into the South Vietnam countryside in May and June of 1955. These provide the basis for this paper, the third of his Vietnam field surveys. In transmitting it to Washington, the U.S. embassy stated: "Together with the previous reports in the series, this account by an alert and penetrating observer of what is going on in the Vietnamese countryside and in the minds of those who dwell there is notable as virtually the first such insight which has become available in a score of years." After summarizing Ladejinsky's analysis of the agrarian situation and his recommendations for a bold emergency credit program, the embassy called attention to a number of other matters on which Ladejinsky throws a passing light, including "a remarkable interview" with the Cao Dai pope. Among these, however, it failed to mention the accepted presence of former Viet Minh among the government's officialdom in the field, the prophetic emphasis on the critical importance of the peasantry in the government's political future, the fact that Diem's government was a weak reed for the United States to lean on, and his emphasis that U.S. aid could at best be marginal in determining the basic political issue. But all this only begins to suggest the extraordinary richness of this paper, which I believe must be ranked among Ladejinsky's most important and best. The paper, dated July 16, was transmitted to Washington with Dispatch 61, August 29, 1955-somewhat belatedly for a paper which recommended emergency action on an urgently needed agricultural credit in time to affect the 1955-56 crop. Introduction land reform program had hardly commenced in either area, for essentially the same reasons. Ti-is IS THE THIRD in a series of reports on This observer could not be absolutely certain rural Vietnam. The first two, "Field Trip Ob- how accurately these reports reflected local servations in Central Vietnam" and "Field Trip conditions or whether the latter, in turn, re- in South Vietnam," written in late March and flected developments in a much wider area of late April, had this conclusion in common: the the country. Fact gathering in Vietnam is diffi- 244 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 cult. Nothing is arranged in neat columns from enforcement of the law rather than concen- which one may deduce reasonably accurate in- trating on what little he could do to gain the formation. The attitude of the farmer is often confidence of the farmers and persuade them even more difficult to fathom; it is not easy to to accept the national government as their gov- determine whether he speaks his innermost ernment. The emphasis is on the word "little," thoughts or the piece implanted in his mind by for, in justice to this better type of local ad- years of Viet Minh indoctrination. One is there- ministrator, he cannot do much until and unless fore never absolutely certain that the picture the national government does its part in help- itself and the conclusions drawn from it are ing create the climate of "acceptance." The what they appear to be. The only corrective to much vaster job of the national government this unsatisfactory situation is further probing, lies beyond the successful trial of arms-it is in the hope that it does not merely compound to demonstrate its appreciation and understand- original errors. It is with these uneasy thoughts ing of the fundamental aspirations of the farm- that I set out for South Vietnam twice again ers. Of that there is only the merest beginnings; after my first two reports to observe conditions the people close to the grass roots must shift in the provinces of Tay Ninh, Soc Trang, Bac for themselves as best they know how, and the Lieu, and Can Tho. best is none too good. Unless the situation is The time of the visits, late May and middle radically improved, it will continue to benefit and late June, is worth noting because the the antigovernment forces. month of May is likely to be remembered as a crucial one in the history of modern Vietnam. It was the month of the defeat of the Binh The Setting Xuyen gangsters; the neutralization of the Cao Dai sect; the emergence of the national army Tay Ninh, Soc Trang, and Bac Lieu are all in as a fighting instrument; and, by the same southern Vietnam. The first lies about 60 miles token, the emergence of President Ngo Dinh northwest of Saigon; the latter two neighboring Diem as the undisputed leader of Vietnam. provinces stretch southward to the very tip of These are all elements pointing in the direction the peninsula, the minimum distance from of unification and stabilization of the country. Saigon being 65 miles and the maximum 200 On the face of it, one might have expected miles. As settled communities, the three prov- to find that the national government had ex- inces are relatively new; they are all products tended its authority and that the land reform of French colonial enterprise which created a program was being more readily accepted. In surplus rice culture and, here and there, rubber reality, recent observations in South Vietnam plantations, out of swamp and jungle. The do not support all of these seemingly logical process of settlement has long since been comn- assumptions. The salutary political effects of pleted, but in the remote sections of Bac Lieu, the victory over the Binh Xuyen was apparent notably in the district of Ca Mau, it is not in Tay Ninh, the stronghold of the Cao Dai; hard to visualize that only yesterday, as it were, but it has failed as yet to have a similar effect man put his stamp upon nature. The farmer upon the attitude of the farmers toward the seems to be lost in the vast expanse laced by a reform and the national government. Nor has few roads and many canals. This is the au- local administration been visibly affected by thentic new land carved out and divided up by the significant events of the past two months. the very few who had the opportunity to claim The prominently displayed motto in local offices the land and the means to cut the canals needed reading "Make it brief, time is money," is to put the land to use. In parts of Tay Ninh. strictly for a laugh and helps only to underscore the rubber plantations, whether in excellent the lack of zeal and zest on the part of most condition or in a state of decay, bear witness to officials encountered on this trip. a determined French effort which the small With few exceptions, chiefs of provinces peasant enterprise does not convey. In Soc and district officers are disturbingly uncon- Trang and Bac Lieu it is not the carefully laid- cerned; even the exceptional official tends to out rubber plantations that strike the traveler engage in merely verbalizing the need for the but the huge and unobstructed stretches of rice South Vietnam Revisited 245 fields-and nothing but rice fields-flat as a hoe spade. There are many such farmers in Soc table, reaching out to the horizon and beyond. Trang and Bac Lieu and in other provinces as All of South Vietnam is a huge rice bowl. well. Rich and relatively abundant land and Regardless of the output of a given province, poor farmers are a common phenomenon there. *the unit of cultivation is small, ranging from By and large, the farmers of these provinces 2 to 10 hectares. The standard equipment is are slightly better off than their opposite num- the iron-pointed plow, the hoe spade, the coupe- bets in central Vietnam. They cultivate more coupe or brush cutting knife, the wooden rake, land and their food supply is more abundant -the weed cutter, the small sickle, and threshing and varied, fish being an important ingredient basket; the motive power is the all-important available without too much effort or expense. buffalo. Transplanting the rice seedlings is the Nevertheless, there are pockets of grinding accepted methods of putting in the crop. Many poverty. A trip along the canals of Ca Mau (a farmers are familiar with chemical fertilizers district of Bac Lieu) can be a pleasant experi- but few can afford them. Improved seed is little ence-if officials don't dog your steps, if you used, and there is hardly any weed control. The are immune to the myriad flies of all sizes and land yields only one crop a year; artificial irri- perseverance, if you forget about the security gation facilities are the exception rather than problem in the guise of a dozen armed soldiers the rule, and the rainy season is the principal in the hold of the boat-if you are oblivious to source of water supply. The rice yields are low, all of this and your attention is consumed by only 1.2 metric tons per hectare, or approxi- the soothing motion of the boat, the water and mately half of that of the southern U.S. rice- the sky, and the lush vegetation lining the producing areas, and less than half of the Japa- banks of the canal. But these make-believe nese rice yields. The inescapable impression is thoughts snap the minute you leave the boat that improved farm practices do not exist. The and make for a peasant hut. Once you are in it, French have indeed helped to open the land of you are reminded of the worst of conditions of Cochin China (South Vietnam), but it does central Vietnam. Since the measuring rod is not appear that the ideas or techniques behind the eye, peasant statements, and one's memory, the scientifically managed plantations have been it is difficult to judge the degree of poverty of transmitted into the peasant sector. Rice experi- one set of farmers as against another. And it is ment stations exist, but it is fairly clear that not really necessary; poverty in both areas is a very little has been done to place the results of threat to the political stability of Vietnam. their work at the disposal of the farmers. All What should be stressed is that in Ca Mau (as of the responsibility for this failure does not in most of Bac Lieu) the threat is greater than necessarily rest with the French, but as direct in many other provinces, for Ca Mau was and administrators of Cochin China, theirs was the still is the most Communist-ridden region of main responsibility. In any case, the net result free Vietnam. is in the total separation of the plantation from When we talk of farmers in South Vietnam, the neasant economy and, above all, a low level we refer to tenants. In all of South Vietnam of farm practices in South Vietnam. the majority of the farmers do not own the The tractor and the combine are familiar, land they cultivate. The French claim that "No and most farmers without buffaloes would like country in the world could have done so much to see the tractors do the jobs for them. To for the native population as France has done in find the tractors, one must look for the few Indochina." This statement alludes above all French-owned, thoroughly mechanized large es- to the development of rice culture in Cochin tates, measured in thousands of acres and oper- China. Viewed in this light, a good measure of ated with the help of hired labor. The long the claim is not without validity, although in row of tractors engaged in plowing up 20,000 the process of opening the land the French did acres out of a total holding of 65,000 acres not fail to stake out for themselves hundreds owned by the Domaine Agricole de I'Ouest of thousands of choice acres in Cochin China stands out in sharp contrast with the neighbor- and a total of about 1,300,000 acres in all of ing small holders; they do the work with the Indochina. Rich Vietnamese followed suit, many buffalo or, lacking the animal, turn the soil by of the cultivators who followed the "staker- 246 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 outers" found themselves with no land of their hectares); and, of the prewar 60,000 hectares own, and became tenants of other men's land. under rice, 40,000 to 45,000 hectares are pres- The depression of the 1930s helped to swell ently under cultivation, providing for a popula- the tenant ranks. They often continued working tion estimated from 150,000 to as many as the same land, but on somebody else's terms. 250,000. From the point of view of arable land, The size of the tenant group and the acreage Tay Ninh is not in a class with Soc Trang, and they cultivate is important to this account for surely not with Bac Lieu. It fits better with economic and political reasons, but reasonably central Vietnam. correct data are no more available for Tay Ninh, But Tay Ninh is a very special case. It helps Soc Trang, and Bac Lieu than they are for other to throw light upon the relationship of the provinces. However, certain approximations Cao Dai sect to the national government and can be deduced indirectly for the last-mentioned upon the future of the Cao Dai. More than half provinces. According to data collected nearly of the province is controlled by the sect, with thirty years ago, before the depression had its own religious dogma, economics, and poli- taken its toll, two-thirds of the land of Bac Lieu tics. The other part of the province is under was in the hands of owners of more than 50 the control of the national government. Taken hectares each; if the middle-sized proprietor together, Tay Ninh is an instance of two co- (from 10 to 50 hectares) is added to the above existing states within one geographic entity. group, the two controlled 90 percent of all of The cold war of recent months between the the land of the province. On the opposite side government and the Cao Dai has subsided; the of the scale are the owners of 10 hectares and final settlement is yet to take place, but the less controlling 10 percent of the land. In some odds are in favor of the national government. districts of Bac Lieu, such as Long Thuy, the So much for the general setting of the three big owners alone possessed 85 percent of the provinces where we searched for answers on cultivated rice land. Since few proprietors culti- the state of the land reform program; the role vate more than 10 hectares of rice land-and it of the Viet Minh; and, as in Tay Ninh, on the is virtually all rice land-it is reasonable to effects of the successful fight of the national conclude that perhaps 90 percent of the land is government against the sects. worked by tenants. This explains why provin- cial and district officers, landlords and tenants simply assume that almost all the land of Bac Nationalist Tay Ninh and Land Reform Lieu is cultivated by tenants. In the district of Gia Rai a tenant was asked to comment on the Tay Ninh province is closest to Saigon, so that farmer categories he was familiar with; said is where we first headed. The ease with which he, "We are all mostly tenants and some of us we reached and traveled through Tay Ninh was are farmhands." He did not exaggerate by leav- in itself a sign of recent political changes. Only ing out the exceptions. a while back it was almost forbidden territory; Similar clues to the situation in Soc Trang leaving the confines of Saigon was not con- are not available, but on-the-spot sampling sidered safe, and the reaction of the Cao Dai shows that tenancy is in the widely prevailing to an inquisitive stranger was open to question. system although not as overwhelming in scope But with the defeat of the Binh Xuyen came as in Bac Lieu. Like Bac Lieu, rice is virtually the neutralization of the Cao Dai sect, and the only crop; there are 2,000 to 3,000 hectares relative freedom of movement followed. of nonrice fields compared to 200,000 hectares Since Tay Ninh is largely Cao Dai and the under rice. Populationwise, Soc Trang has a remainder nationalist, the land reform there strong non-Vietnamese element; of the esti- and the Cao Dai land policies were of practical mated 250,000 people, 60,000 are Cambodians interest to us. There was another immediate rea- and 30,000 are Chinese. son for the trip to Tay Ninh. In early May in Of the three provinces, Tay Ninh appears to the village of An Hoa of the district of Trang be the least tenancy ridden. More than half of Bang, there took place a much publicized cere- the province is under forest; part of the re- mony of tenants signing contracts. This is not mainder is under rubber plantations (14,000 a common occurrence in Vietnam, and for that South Vietnam Revisited 247 reason alone a visit to the village was in order. trict chief was no better informed about the The trip through the three provinces was not tax problem than he appeared to be about the a prearranged one. The reaction of the officials land reform program. to an unannounced visit varied from friendly One thing he knew and it was beyond dis- in Bac Lieu to barely disguised hostility in pute: We could not enter a Cao Dai village Tay Ninh. On one such occasion we could not without permission of the Cao Dai authorities. help but recall an old Russian saying that "an Some of the villages, as mentioned earlier, were unexpected guest is worse than a Tartar." The within his district; but such is the division of explanation was obvious; they did not welcome authority, enforced by the presence of Cao Dai the questions which were posed and they did troops, that those villages might have been in not relish answering them. The questions were another part of the country rather than within simple. They bore upon the knowledge of the a radius of a few miles. Neither the district chief of the province of conditions in his terri- chief nor the chief of the province pretended to tory and his compliance with requests made have any knowledge or interest in the arrange- upon him by the Ministry for Agrarian Reform ments prevailing in a Cao Dai village. regarding the implementation of the land re- The chief of the much larger Go Dau Ha form ordinances. From the district chiefs we district, sixteen villages with an estimated popu- sought more specific information about the lation of 40,000, did not deny the existence of villages under their control. We did not profit tenants and boldly stated that "we follow closely from the answers in either case. the government and all our tenants have signed Do Tuong Thanh, chief of the Trang Bang contracts." The crude overstatement of the situa- district, has only seven villages, three of them tion gave rise to a more detailed discussion, the Cao Dai. In the villages under his supervision results of which can best be summed up in the the farmers worked, so he informed us, a total words of Mr. Linh, noted for his knowledge of of 2,000 hectares of rice fields. He did not American jargon: "He is giving you a snow know how many tenants there were or how job, and he is the biggest damn liar I have ever much land they cultivated, but he assumed that met." Mr. Linh sized him correctly. He was not there were relatively few tenants. Having made familiar with the provisions of the ordinances; that assumption, or perhaps for other reasons there were no land committees in the district; he failed to reveal, he evidently decided that he couldn't exhibit a single signed contract; the entire matter was not worth bothering with, and he declined to accompany us to any village There was not a piece of paper-posters of of his choice on the ground of alleged lack of government reform regulations-one might security. Nor was he forthright in his comments have expected to find in an office which is on the Cao Dai villages, of which there were supposed to have close contact with the farm- seven in his district. ers. The very subject of land reform seemed The chief of the province proved to be a foreign to him, and talk about it was clearly match to his district officers. It is in his office an annoyance he did not trouble to hide. Since that we first noticed the motto of making it in Mr. Thanh's view most farmers in his vil- brief because time was money. His own in- lages were proprietors, the taxation question ordinately long siesta, way past the normally was raised. More specifically, were farmers pay- generous one, belied that slogan. No great show ing taxes? He started by saying that since the of activity was being displayed in the other May events it has become easier for him to offices as we looked into them while pacing deal with the village authorities who are re- the corridor in anticipation of his arrival. And sponsible for tax collections. However, he was we wondered about the real value he attached to not in a position or perhaps unwilling to illus- time and brevity and the efficient, businesslike trate this shift in attitude. He could have done administration they imply. When he finally ap- that by a reference to the tax returns, but this peared on the scene, he proceeded to make a he failed to do and we, naturally, did not press number of observations on how busy he was him. The more likely presumption upon which consolidating village administration through ap- my capable assistant and interpreter, Nguyen pointments to the village councils, providing Ngoc Linh, agreed with me was that the dis- greater security for the villages, promoting the 248 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 land reform program, and how careful one of the land reform program; they paid 25 per- must be furnishing credit to farmers because cent rental to their respective landlords and in- "it is easy to lend them money but hard to get tend to do the same in the future without the it back." benefit of a contract under the land reform. Even with the excellent assistance of Mr. Private deals with the landlords were evidently Linh, it was not clear to this observer what this not uncommon. The farmhands would like to official was really thinking or doing about the rent land, but they have neither farm tools nor points he raised. A number of specific questions buffaloes nor hope of ever acquiring them. The followed: Is there any person in his office tenant sets his sights much higher. Renting land charged with overseeing land reform develop- under the ordinances leaves him in roughly the ments? What progress has been made in the same position as before. What the tenants of five months since the ordinances had been An Hoa village wanted is ownership of the promulgated? What, precisely, is the position land. The question they raise was whether the of the tenants regarding the reform? What are government could not help them buy the land the farmers in his province concerned with through some credit arrangement. Barring that, most? What were his own views on the land they must continue to cultivate the land as of issue? If farmers cannot be trusted with money, old. Talks with farmers in two other villages what other means of credit could be provided revealed a similar pattern. The implications of for those in need? Are the farmers aware of the all of this will be touched upon in another con- events in Saigon, and what is their attitude to- nection, but at this point it is sufficient to note ward the national government-before and that, in the government-controlled area of Tay after? To these questions we were unable to Ninh, rent reduction is not an issue. Hardly a elicit answers worth recording. His interests, tenant will take a local official to task for not whatever they were, lay in other fields. It was keeping him informed about the program, and a relief to part company with him, as with his no official will call a tenant to task for not pur- deputies in the districts, and get into the open, suing his rights under the ordinances. away from this type of negatively inactive ad- At first glance the above is in contradiction mninistrators. with the earlier reference to the signing of con- In the field, among a group of farmers, the tracts by tenants of An Hoa village. But it is errors of commission and omission of the local not. The publicized account of the event bears administration became quite apparent. These little resemblance to the existing state of affairs. were farmers of the village of An Hoa, referred It would appear that only 20 out of the 225 to above; a good many of them were preparing tenants signed contracts, presumably because the fields after the first few steady rains. We those 20 tenants could not get along with their stopped near one of the fields and, true to cus- landlords and a written obligation on the part tom, farmer after farmer laid down his tools, of the landlord was a measure of security. gathered around us, and puffed away on Ameri- We did not quite accept the story of the can cigarettes; they had their say, some guard- twenty, for we could not find farmers who had edly and others freely. signed contracts, while the secretary ignored Mr. Thanh's insistence that there were hardly the suggestion of sampling them. Of course, any tenants in his district was not true; the some few tenants and landlords may have in- farmers we chanced upon were either tenants voked the provision of the land reform legisla- or farmhands. It is true that the landlords are tions, but it would not have changed the picture not big proprietors; they are just above the of what is essentially, to date, only a reform on category of the landlords of central Vietnam. paper. In this particular village they could boast of Reluctance of tenants to accept the reform only four landlords with 20 hectares each. Most is not a novel story; what is different about it in of the others owned less than 10 hectares each. Tay Ninh is that there attitude cannot be at- The secretary of the village council present with tributed to the influence of Viet Minh agents. us could not tell the number of tenant families According to all accounts, the Communists are but ventured a rough guess of about 225. The few in number; perhaps 5 percent of the vil- tenants in the field disclaimed any knowledge lages are affected by them. This is a very low South Vietnam Revisited 249 proportion compared with other provinces we sense, are the few new settlements. There, the visited in central or southern Vietnam. The faithful receive from the sect pieces of land explanation is that the province is dominated large enough for a house and a garden patch. by the Cao Dai sect; and the latter, unlike the The houses are built at the expense of the indi- representatives of the national government, is viduals; they seem to be in fairly good shape ... in active touch with the people. Moreover, for The communities give the appearance of some years the Cao Dai have not seen eye to planned enterprises; the principal feature is a eye with the Viet Minh, and the Viet Minh house site of equal size strung out along both agents can flex their muscles only at the risk sides of a straight and broad street ending in of swift punishment from the military arm of the rice fields. More often than not the people the Cao Dai sect. The same conditions do not in the communities neither own nor tenant as yet apply in most of the government-con- those fields. As farmers who settled there only trolled provinces. three or four years ago, very few of them own land and the only land available to them, aside from the garden plots, is the land they rent upon terms imposed by the owners of the land. Cao Dai-Controlled Tay Ninh They don't mind paying the rent; the problem and Land Reform is that very little land, and particularly good rice land, is available for rent. What of the arrangements in the Cao Dai- The case of one farmer, one of the oldest controlled villages? inhabitants of one of the communities (five The local administration of the national gov- years), is fairly typical. He owns one hectare ernment could speak only in the most general of poor land which he recovered from the forest terms about the Cao Dai renting out absentee on which he plants manioc, peanuts, and sweet landlords' land to tenants who in turn paid potatoes. He has a family of eight and ekes out rent and taxes to the Cao Dai. The natural a poor living. He and his like consider them- thing to do was to go into such a village to selves "landless" and are eagerly accepting em- gather the information, but this was easier said ployment at 20 piastres a day, or less than 10 than done. While a curious visitor would in all cents a day at the open exchange rate. What he likelihood not suffer bodily harm if he entered wants is to rent a hectare of rice land, but find- a village and addressed himself to the farmers, ing one is not easy, although the land is gener- the fact is that the "curtain" is there against all ally sandy and yields only 0.7 tons of rice per the non-Cao Dai. Only the Cao Dai authorities hectare. There are a few landlords in the neigh- could raise it, and this they did without much borhood with 30 to 50 hectares each who live ado after we stated the purpose of the contem- in Saigon or in the city of Tay Ninh. They rent plated visit. the land to middlemen who in turn sublet it at Before we started on the trip and during its 35 percent of the crop-plus 300 piastres "key early stage, the very helpful Major Luc (and money" per hectare. Cao Dai though they are, later on the Cao Dai pope himself) had quite the farmers complain against the failure of the a bit to say on the agrarian polices of the sect. government, and presumably the national gov- In brief, it was a picture of a system under ernment, to come to their aid. More than one which the man who cultivates the land owns farmer stated with bitterness that "government that land. This did not prove to be the case as only benefits the rich and the middle-class we observed conditions in new villages near farmers." Perhaps out of deference to the major 'ray Ninh city established by the Cao Dai, in who was accompanying us, no criticism was di- areas of the so-called "shifting cultivation" or rected against the Cao Dai leadership. "fire farming" at the foot of the extraordinary The new villages, which are few in number, mountain with a truncated conical mass which strike the observer as resettlement projects, dominates the plain of Tay Ninh, and in old shelter and garden patches being the principal settled Cao Dai communities on the very border ingredients. The lack of arable land imposes a of Cambodia. The nearest to the officially ex- severe limitation upon their economic stability, pounded policy, and only in a very limited yet they are the authentic Cao Dai villages if 250 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 for no other reason than that the sect created ready cited, the official Cao Dai line on land them. Quite different are the numerous old has no basis in fact. Perhaps the weightiest evi- settled villages controlled by the Cao Dai. There dence against the official view is that, despite is nothing Cao Dai about them, except for cer- the presence of Cao Dai troops or guards here tain levies imposed by the sect. and there, in the minds of the farmers "govern- Official statements to the contrary notwith- ment" is not identified with the Cao Dai but standing, the same land arrangements prevail with something not quite comprehensible resid- here as elsewhere, with landlords, tenants, farm- ing in Saigon. Many farmers failed to identify hands, and small proprietors. There is the same President Diem; but, when they complained lack of knowledge about the reform program about the lack of land, credit, buffalos, and so but with this difference: Since landlord and ten- forth, they did not address themselves to the ants are Cao Dai, Viet Minh influence is virtu- Cao Dai as a source of possible fulfillment; in- ally nonexistent. Relative political stability has stead, they talked of the government in Saigon been existing since 1947, so the landlord-tenant as a possible source of largesse. This fact is not relations are more normal, harking back to pre- without political significance. civil war days. The village councils are made The universe of the Cao Dai farmers extends up of the substantial landowners who evidently beyond the Cao Dai realm; the isolationism have had no difficulty in keeping the rest of the imposed by the latter upon the farmers thwarts farmers in line. Considering the quality of the their hopes of achieving certain minimum re- soil, the rents, which average a third of the quirements and is bound to give way at the crop, are high. In addition, the faithful are as- first opportunity. That opportunity will come sessed 10 piastres a month as special tax, occa- some day soon when the national government sionally contribute as much as 10 percent of will be in a position to remind the sect of the the rice harvest, and help to cultivate Cao Dai injunction to "Render therefore to Caesar the church land where such is available as a special things that are Caesar's, and unto God the contribution to the church. These "extras" were things that are God's." The government will not treated by the tenants as burdensome; they then extend its authority into the Cao Dai were rather looked upon as contributions to countryside. The farmers there who haven't sustain the Cao Dai. Except for these features, been affected by the Viet Minh blandishments there is nothing especially characteristic of the will welcome the move, particularly if the gov- Cao Dai about these villages. Rent reduction is ernment makes it clear that their aspirations a minor issue; finding land to cultivate is the will not go unnoticed. big issue. So is credit. "We don't borrow money," said one tenant, because "we tenants are poor and nobody lends to poor people." To The Cao Dai and American Aid some the lack of a buffalo is probably the most important problem. Without the buffalo, the When farmers search for betterment and do farmer is near the very bottom of the agri- not find it, inveighing against government is cultural ladder. The conclusion is warranted natural. The surprising part was that the United that these Cao Dai villagers want the very same States was not spared from criticism either. We things non-Cao Dai farmers are after: land, came across one "isolated" Cao Dai farmer who credit, irrigation facilities, and fertilizers. Out- was critical of American economic aid, or rather side of their religious proclivities, they consti- the alleged lack of aid. A well-spoken farmer tute just another group of Vietnamese farmers stated that for all the talk of such assistance, he struggling to make both ends meet had seen no evidence of it. We could not very The Cao Dai officials have striven to create well convince him that in some way, sooner or the impression that their villages were some- later, he may benefit from the agricultural proj- thing special and different. The local officials of ects and other assistance now being rendered the national government have helped to give by the United States operations mission. It was widespread currency to this false premise by all too nebulous for one looking for immediate not visiting the Cao Dai villages on the ground relief. But the first to mention the subject of exaggerated security fears. For reasons al- critically was General Nguyen Thanh Phuong, South Vietnam Revisited 251 supreme commander of the Cao Dai forces and now His Holiness, Pope Pham Cong Tac, the major general of the Vietnamese national army, supreme leader of Cao Dai and a staunch oppo- whose headquarters we visited. nent of President Ngo Dinh Diem. One sus- The general, currently a supporter of the pects that it was his opponent's resounding national government, remarked that he has ap- victory over the Binh Xuyen that has set the proached the government for funds in order to pope to thinking about the unrewarding risks a create two model villages. His purpose is two- religious sect must shoulder when it gets ac- fold; to demonstrate that improvements can rively involved in the tangled politics of Viet- be achieved and that the job can be carried out nam. without outside aid. By "outside aid" he meant The meeting with His Holiness was a by- American aid, because almost in the same breath product of the arrangement to visit Cao Dai he voiced the opinion that the Vietnamese villages. While we were at the military head- peasants have never received anything from quarters of the sect to secure the necessary the United States and that they are beginning clearance, Major Luc inquired if we wouldn't to think that "Americans are supplanting the care to meet the pope himself. We readily former French colonialists." The role of the agreed. By way of preparation for the session, Americans is misunderstood, he thought, and we visited the Cathedral of the Holy See, de- added that the United States should try to dispel signed and built by the pope, over which he this impression which adds fuel to the Viet presides. The writer's thought was that the ca- Minh propaganda. We argued the point at some thedral itself might give us some clue about length; it was clear in the end that he used the the pope as a person, as turned out to be the peasants as a peg on which to hang his own case. There are numerous accounts of this un- prejudices. It is quite natural for a farmer in fortunate architectural marriage between a pa- the presence of an American representative of goda, a southern baroque church, and something uSOM to raise the question about American else that defies description. The words employed aid in relation to his needs and, what seems to by visiting commentators range from "fascinat- him, the inadequacy of that aid. General ing horror" to plain "horror." There is probably Phuong, on the other hand, left the impression no religious edifice in all of Asia which is so that he was speaking a political piece all of his altogether out of keeping with the culture of own for motives not too clear, a given people and its physical surroundings. However, when the next morning we sat listen- ing to the pope's melange of ideas on economics, The Cao Dai Pope- religion, and politics, the architectural aesthetics His Economics and Religion of his vatican did not seem altogether sur- prising. In Tay Ninh the Cao Dai continue to enjoy It is a sign of the times and of the road this temporal as well as religious power over the religious sect has traveled in the not quite greater part of the province. At first glance, it thirty years of its existence that the immediate appears as if nothing has changed since May, entourage of the pope is not what one would after the defeat of the Binh Xuyen sect by the expect of a spiritual leader. We were escorted national government. This impression is decep- to his comfortable, upper-middle-class, Euro- tive. The neutralization of most of the military pean style house by the military, and the people forces of the Cao Dai is the beginning of the who greeted us before we were ushered into change and more is bound to follow. In the end, the pope's presence were the deputy command- only the exercise of the religious influence of ing general of the Cao Dai armed forces and Cao Dai will be preserved and probably ex- his chief of staff. There was not a cardinal, panded; Cao Dai economics and politics and archbishop, bishop, or a priest about. It is quite military power to sustain them will not survive possible, of course, that his military double in the accelerated unification of the country under brass. a national government. This is the impression His Holiness is an elderly man, of slight we carried away after a lengthy talk with a build, with grey hair carefully combed back, a former secretary of the customs administration, clean-shaven animated face, dark eyes of the 252 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 high-powered headlight kind, an ebullient air, What about the land reform of the national and quickness of movement. He was dressed government in the light of the above disquisi- in a long, white silk robe and Chinese slippers; tions? He has a ready answer: "It alleviates the most prominent part of his attire was a conditions but doesn't go far enough. What the big ring which proclaimed his position as re- peasant needs is land ownership. The govern- ligious leader. Whatever dignity he attaches to ment should do what we have done-divide his calling, he kept the formal part well hidden. the land among those who can work it. The He was all-benign friendliness, his face was Cao Dai religion forbids the purchase or sale wreathed in smiles, and he made every effort to of land among peasants. The land of our farmers put his visitors at ease. It was hard to believe is theirs for life unless they move into another that this man, the acknowledged leader of some part of the country. If a farmer has more land two million faithful, has been in the thick of than he can cultivate, we take it away from him. the country's opium trade and every political We have carried out our reform not by word shenanigan practiced in Indochina these past but by deed-go and see our villages and find ten years. out for yourself." We had gone and we had At our suggestion, the pope addressed him- seen, but we spared him the embarrassment of self to three topics: land policies, religion, and telling him that he does not practice what he politics. He spoke with alacrity, never at a loss preaches. for words, playing with them as a good pianist The pope is against "capitalism," for the plays the piano. His contradictions did not latter, he stressed, "is against justice and hu- trouble him; perhaps he was not aware of inanity." He spoke feelingly of the "Confucian them. In the lengths he went attempting to golden mean" as the ideal economic and social prove that Cao Dai is the only universal church, arrangement. Above all, he had words of praise he displayed a prodigious imagination and an for the economic system of the Incas in Peru. aptitude for making assumptions which stagger What that system was he did not tell us, and we one for their audacity. His views on politics did not press. Since he had utterly dismissed were both forthright and of the tongue-in-cheek capitalism, and the Inca civilization and Con- kind. All in all, like the physical appearance fucianism were but memories, we asked His of his Holy See, they added up to a "fascinating Holiness what economic system he would rec- horror." ommend for present day Vietnam. He had an As to property, which the pope naturally answer: "Let the government furnish the land, thought of in terms of land only, he took a leaf seed, and implements in return for half of the out of Blackstone without, we may suppose, crop. This would also take care of the taxes having read him. Said the pope: "From a legal normally paid by the farmers." Like so many point of view only the state is the legal owner other Vietnamese, he has a penchant for modern of land. If the state did not exist, landlords mechanical equipment, but with this difference: would not exist." The pope draws the logical he wants it entirely owned and controlled by conclusion that there are no absolute rights in the government. But would not this enable the property and urges the distribution of land government to exercise control over the farmers "among those who cultivate it." He also intro- and perhaps exploit them? Such would be the duces an equalitarian principle: "Divide it case, he admitted, "but ours would be a wise equally in accordance with the farmers' varying government, not a Communist government; and needs." His Holiness believes that his ideas of besides this type of equipment efficiently man- private property in land are particularly ap- aged would raise the power and the prestige plicable to Vietnam because "the landlords of the government." So much for his economics. never bought the land; it was all concession The religious beliefs of the pope, important land and the sole payments were in the form though they are, are outside our scope, but his of land taxation. The government should take theological views, and particularly the feats of the land back and repay the tax in annual in- imagination which permeate them, throw light stallments." But what about those owners who on the character of the man who until recently purchased the land? His answer is that "the wielded so much political power. Westerners same system of annual payments should apply." make much sport of the Cao Dai pantheon of South Vietnam Revisited 253 Jesus, Buddha, Lao-tse, and of the other lumi- Cao Dai. We shifted with regret to politics, a naries such as the great Chinese poet, Li Tai field in which His Holiness is adept. Po, Joan of Arc, William Shakespeare, Victor He spoke with the same ease on politics. Hugo, Sun Yat Sen, and, rumors have it, Charlie There is much that he left unsaid, and some of Chaplin. But if we are to believe His Holiness, his presentation was less than candid, but the the heart of the matter, the spiritual heart, is sum total of the pope's views have much rele- the thing. What his religion stands for is vance on the point we set out to test: the ef- "worship of God and worship of humanity. All fects of the successful fight of the government other religious leaders are God's creations to do against the Binh Xuyen. just what we are aspiring to do-except that we Throughout the rapid-fire discourse, he made do more. Ours is a universal church; we unite no bones about his pet peeves, the principal all religious beliefs and practices, and thus we one being President Ngo Dinh Diem. His bill return to God's inspired unity of God and of particulars against the president was not man. The spirit of Cao Dai has existed from novel: (a) he does not represent the people, time immemorial unbeknownst to us; all re- (b) he cannot work in a coalition, (c) he is ligions have flourished in Vietnam, and that dictatorial, (d) he refuses to take any advice is why the third revelation of God has taken other than from members of his own family, place in Vietnam and its incarnation is Cao and (e) he lacks the flexibility so indispensable Dai." to a head of a government. "He is not doing We asked His Holiness about the two other anything right," was his conclusion. When we revelations. In reply, he laid stress not so much reminded His Holiness about the coexistence on the nature of those revelations as upon their of President Diem's government and the Cao geographic distribution; a factor pregnant with Dai, he allowed that "We support it because it meaning but allegedly overlooked by all stu- is the lesser of two evils, and we must avoid dents of religion. Said he: "Moses in Palestine chaos and anarchy." was God's first revelation, followed by the lesser Bao Dai did not emerge any too well either. signs of His mercy in the form of Brahma, To the pope he is a man of lost opportunities, Siva, and Vishna in India and Laotse in China. devoid of political sense, soft and self-indulgent. The second revelation was Jesus Christ, again He admits that the partition of Vietnam was Palestine, but extending to Europe as well. And Bao Dai's political undoing, but he felt that then Confucius in China, Buddha in India, and Bao Dai could have retrieved much if he had Mohammed in Arabia." But there was one done, what he, the pope, urged him to do. He nmissing link, said the pope, unaccountably un- advised him to strive for a constitutional mon- touched by God's grace, and that was "Indo- archy with a popular base. He wrote to Bao Dai china, the center of the universe." The seeming that "When people are in a revolutionary frame omission was understandable because the two of mind out of despair, it is the duty of govern- major and the number of minor revelations ment to create a good democratic form of were only preparatory for the third major government." This particular letter, the pope revelation which took place in Indochina in the remarked, was never acknowledged. "After year 1926. It is here that God revealed himself eighty years of French domination," His Holi- under the name of Cao Dai, uniting all creeds ness continued, "Bao Dai had a good chance to to serve the world and give humanity a chance lead the people, but now the South is against to regain its conscience. That is why ours is him, and so is the North, and the partition of the universal church." the country finished him." But evidently not quite, in the pope's mind, for at one point he expressed the belief that Bao Dai would re- The Pope's Politics and President Diem's turn, from his own government, and fight Presi- Fight Against the Sects dent Diem. What will Bao Dai fight with? The pope groped for an answer and finally observed We are too ignorant in matters theological, nor that: "Not all national troops are pro-President is it within our province to comment on the Diem, and other revolutionaries (the term he pope's presentation of the religious meaning of used) like Hoa Hao and the remaining Binh 254 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 Xuyen would flock to his support." He did not tion. He stated that, "Yes, it is in our interest mention the Cao Dai for reasons to be explained to eschew politics. It is time that we go back presently. Generally speaking, the possibility of to religion and to the original aim of Cao Dai. Bao Dai's return was one of the least convincing By giving up the army we shall extend our in- parts of the pope's pronouncements; it may ternational position as a religious force. We do well be that he brought this subject up only not wish to tie the destiny of Cao Dai to the because the wish is the father of the thought. destinies of Vietnam. Cao Dai is the universal The pope was particularly vigorous about church, and we shall go back to fulfilling our recent events in Saigon, and apparently on the original mission of a creed which unites all defensive. He would have us believe that he creeds." created the National United Front (in March) This was indeed a remarkable statement made up of the Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, and Binh from the lips of a man steeped in politics, the Xuyen to strengthen the government, "for man who only two months back was the prime everyone must play a part in creating good mover of a scheme to unseat President Diem. government." He was not unaware of certain His expressed desire, therefore, to go back to problems inherent in his move: "I recognize religion is something more than meets the eye. there are bad elements among the Binh Xuyen, That "something more" is the price that he Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao; but we can best be rid must pay for a political failure. Without im- of them within the united front organization," pugning his devotion to the fortunes of the and, he added, "The best way to disarm the universal church, it must be stated that should sects is only when they are represented in the he, this time, begin to practice what he preaches, national government." it would be a direct consequence of the defeat He deplored the fighting in Saigon. Bao Dai inflicted upon the Binh Xuyen by the national acted illegally when he sold the rights of government. This in turn has played a part in policing Saigon to the Binh Xuyen, and Presi- the neutralization of the Cao Dai armed forces. dent Diem should have demanded the right to If this state of affairs continues, the political supervise them. But, he said, "The President arm of the pope becomes virtually nonexistent. had no business trying to disarm them by force Viewed in this light, the pope's current aspira- and then create his own police force." Now tions to devote himself to the fulfillment of that this particular fight is over and important the original mission of his church are under- military Cao Dai leaders have proclaimed their standable. For the same reason, it will not be allegiance to the national government, "Is it surprising if the national government strips Cao correct to assume," we asked His Holiness, "that Dai of its temporal power. When that comes the Cao Dai will throw in its fortunes with the to pass, the "state within a state" practice will national government, incorporate its forces with be eliminated, and along with the elimination those of the latter, and fight a common battle of the Hoa Hao sect free Vietnam may at long against the remnants of the Binh Xuyen and last achieve political unity. This is the principal the Hoa Hao?" He did not relish the question, impression we carried away from Tay Ninh as but what he did say complainingly was as fol- we were winding our way down south to Soc lows: "The government has integrated only Trang and Bac Lieu. 8,000 out of our total armed force of 25,000. This puts me in a quandry about the remaining 17,000. Had the government integrated the en- Soc Trang and the Land Reform tire force, my position would have been clearer." "Would not then the real integration of the Cao The province of Soc Trang, unlike Tay Ninh, Dai forces cause the elimination of the political is not half nationalist and half sect. It is all power of the Cao Dai?" Without hesitation he nationalist controlled. So is Bac Lieu-at least replied in the affirmative. "Is it in your interest," on the surface. Therefore, one is in a position we further queried His Holiness, "to give up to inquire into agrarian developments of a all the temporal power after the years of effort province as a whole. We are dealing here with to build it up?" His reply was the high point areas of big holdings, a vast number of tenants, of the interview, although it calls for qualifica- and relatively small groups of owner cultivators. South Vietnam Revisited 255 On the face of it, these conditions are much force what he does not believe in. "We have more conducive to land reform than in Tay been robbed by the Viet Minh over the years," Ninh or provinces similar to Tay Ninh. How he stated, "and we resent similar treatment then did the reform fare during nearly six from the national government." He was going months since its inauguration? to appoint new village councils and insure their The answer is that it did not fare well at all. protection with detachments of auxiliary pro- The reasons are not dissimilar to most of those vincial guards. He spoke like the economic man already described in previous reports. But there pure and simple, undisturbed by all the other is a new disturbing element in the picture: issues which gave rise to the reform. He was whereas in other provinces the tenants were speaking for many others, the difference being the more reluctant to sign contracts under the that "others" are not in the crucial administra- reform provisions, here many landlords feel tive position he is in. similarly. They do not appear to be eager to One need not be a chief of a province and insure for themselves a 15 to 25 percent rental a landlord to view the program with disdain or merely because they have been getting little or to be actively unconcerned with it. The chief no rent in the past ten years. On the contrary, of Bac Lieu province, a very self-confident major some of them insist on retroactive rent pay- in the national army, ready to take on any sub- ment as a condition of leasing the land; others ject with equal glibness, told us with evident wish to take back that portion of the land which relish that everything was under control. Natu- the Viet Minh redistributed among the tenants, rally, he did not control the situation at all. He while most of them feel that the time has come called a rally of landlords and tenants, urging to secure a degree of control over their land upon them the acceptance of the program, and similar to that of pre-civil war days. then promptly concluded that they have ac- Essentially, their attitude is an expression of cepted it. A trip in any direction from his their belief in the stabilization of their prov- capital would reveal, as it did to us, total inces and the unquestioned support they are noncompliance and much more besides. The getting from the local administration. Their seething discontent in an area notorious for its confidence in the security of the province is a Viet Minh infiltration stood out in sharp con- welcome sign of changing political conditions, trast to the verbiage of the happy-go-lucky, but from the point of view of a countryside back-slapping major. rent by social conflicts, the position they are When pressed for an estimate of program taking is deplorable. Turning the clock back fulfillment, the Soc Trang officials ventured a may be good for the landlords, but it does not figure of 5 percent. It is a low figure and may take much political astuteness to note that what be a correct one, although in our trips out into is good for the landlords is not necessarily good the country finding a signed contract was like for free Vietnam. The strains and stresses this finding a needle in a hay stack. Perhaps the attitude is creating might prove too much for encouraging part was that in the first village the welfare of Vietnam. we visited we met with a group of farmers who Once in the capitals of Soc Trang and Bac had a very good idea of what the reform provi- Lieu, it is apparent that the officialdom is not sions were about. In this case, familiarity bred engaged in the promotion of the land program. contempt for the reform, the main reason being It is Tay Ninh all over, even if with variations, that the range of 15 to 25 percent rental meant In Soc Trang officials were candid enough to say 15 percent to the tenants and at least 25 percent that they lack the administrative machine to to the landlord-with no common ground for cope with the problem and that the district offi- agreement whatsoever. There was not a contract cers do not venture outside of their offices be- in this village. The landlords, for their part, cause "their influence does not warrant the blame the impasse on the farmers' union trouble of a trip." What was more disturbing (Nghiep Doan Nong Dan) to which a good is the actively negative attitude of the new many of the tenants of the village belong. civilian chief of the province. He told us with We visited the union in its offices in Soc utter frankness that as a landlord he is opposed Trang. It was obviously performing a union to the reform and doesn't intend to help en- function judging by the prominently displayed 256 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 signs: "Have you paid your dues?" But there filthy yard with farm equipment strewn in were more pertinent indications of its activity. helter-skelter fashion, the huge boilers as the Many farmers were there to seek advice; we only remains of the rice mills fired by the Viet listened in on the proceedings, and it was clear Minh, the three enclosures of skillfully arranged that the union took a position for a rental of barbed wire surrounding the house, and the 15 percent or less, depending upon the quality three-story house pock-marked with bullets- of the land. With or without the union advice, all these bear witness to a formerly besieged the tenants were concerned with matters beyond fortress and an enterprise in the last stages of rent control. They pleaded for ownership of decline. But to the French resident manager, land. The spokesman of the village group made who has watched over this estate for ten years, the point that "The village needs peace and that things are looking up. The Viet Minh have the landlord-tenant conflicts will never cease gone and so have the two army units which under the rent reduction program." They were posted on the estate. Only a small company pleaded for credit and for lower-priced fertil- of twenty armed guards still keep an eye on the izer. They blamed the government for not immediately surrounding countryside. doing any of these things. Said one, "We can Contrary to what might have been expected, support the government only if it supports us." a semblance of economic activity never ceased This was one of the most articulate groups on the estate during the civil war days. Some of farmers we met. It was not an ex-Viet Minh of the land was cultivated and rents were col- village with a Viet Minh overtone but one with lected by posting guards at the canal exits; since deep-rooted problems about which the farmers the only means of transporting rice from the were actively concerned. The official tendency field was the canals, rent payment could not be is to brand such outpourings as Communist in- easily evaded. There were more important rea- spired; we have encountered this attitude on sons why the French owners held on to their a number of occasions, but officials know too estates. What they failed to collect in rent and little of their own villages, where they seldom whatever damages they sustained through the appear, to permit them to judge the motives depredations of the Viet Minh, the French gov- behind the demand of the farmers. Unquestion- ernment made good through a special war dam- ably, the tenants of the village of Tai Sun argue ages fund. The provision that such funds did for the lowest rent possible, but the failure to not have to be reinvested in Vietnam was an- comply with the reform cannot be placed solely other reason explaining why the owners held at the door of the tenants. More security as a on so tenaciously in the midst of unfriendly means of scaring the tenants into accepting the surroundings. Monsieur Archier admitted that, unpalatable provisions of the rent law is not while the exportable surplus was way down, the answer. The issues go beyond rent reduc- "we weathered the civil war in good shape." He tion and beyond any attempts to ensure law and was sympathetic with the Vietnamese owners order in the countryside by relying upon larger who had no claims against the French govern- armed forces, local or national. ment for economic assistance. Unlike some Soc Trang is a province with large French other French rice plantations, the entire acreage landholdings. What of the application of the is rented out to 700 tenant families, rents, so he reform on such properties? told us, ranging from 15 to 20 percent, depend- One of the principal French holdings is the ing upon the quality of the soil and the distance Domaine Gressier of nearly 70,000 acres of from the seat of the plantation. In addition to rice land, scattered in a number of large chunks. collecting rent, the administration runs two rice The one we visited in Thanh Tri district has mills and maintains a few tractors to plow the an area of 10,000 acres. We approached the fields for those who have no buffaloes. administration headquarters, or the manor Monsieur Archier seldom leaves the estates; house, through one of the worst rural slums we his only connection with the outside world is have seen in Vietnam. The manor house is like teletype communication with the Gressier inter- the slums, both outside and inside. The stagnant ests in Saigon. He was indeed pleased to see tIs canals which crisscross the estate, the rickety and the chief of the district who accompanied bridge on the main approach to the house, the us. He discussed the eventful years calmly and South Vietnam Revisited 257 matter-of-factly; but, when we touched upon Rover, sitting there in his gleaming white the land reform program, he grew livid with "sharkskin," bored with the whole business but indignation. "The government," he said, "is with no intention of getting out of the Rover. more revolutionary than the Viet Minh and it This former employee of the Ministry of Public is too bad that the land reform program is not Health, turned district chief since June 1954, accompanied with a propaganda campaign to had never visited this or any other village; the remind the farmers that not everything is per- farmers did not know him and he did not know missible. Doesn't the government know that them. The two never met, not even while we the farmers are only waiting for 1956 in the were there. hope that the Viet Minh would come back?" As we visited hut after hut, the Gressier- 'We countered by saying that since the rents the tenant relationship became obvious. Every ten- estate charges compare well with the rent re- ant had a little green, paperbound notebook, duction provisions, why not accept them. He with "D.G." (Domaine Gressier) printed on would have nothing to do with the reform, not the cover. Inside, it merely stated that farmer because of the official rent rates, which, upon so-and-so rented so much land at so many units examination, proved to be lower than those of rice per hectare. These figures revealed that charged by the estate; it was the mere idea of the actual rent greatly exceeded that cited by bargaining with the tenants which was so re- the manager. In some cases they were nearly pugnant to him. This meant a break with a twice as high. However, the farmers admitted seventy-year-old custom of setting the rules of that they were lower than in the pre-civil war the game and expecting the other fellow to days. The rent notation was the only visible accept them without question. Now he was evidence of terms under which the tenant baffled and distressed, not by active opposition worked the land. This is quite understandable if of his tenants which, incidentally, is not yet the tenants are to be believed that numerous apparent, but by the inescapable feeling that other conditions that normally govern such a they harbor new thoughts, that they listen to relationship are decided solely by the manage- the Viet Minh propaganda and consort with ment. A tenant, it appeared, is on a particular the tenant union agents, people with whom piece of land one year; he may be given other they should have no truck. land the next year or put off the land alto- Monsieur Archier spoke warmly of Vietnam; gether if he fails to comply, whether by design his wife is Vietnamese, his children are raised or not, with the unwritten conditions-old or in Vietnam, and he expected to spend the rest new-prescribed by the management. This may of his years in Vietnam, but evidently only on explain why this company village contains not his terms. Since these are not likely to obtain a few farmhands who were formerly tenants. any longer, he expressed the hope that the Above all, the existing rentals, if nothing else, Gressier would sell the land, cheaply if neces- explain why the management is so adamantly sary, and wind up their business in rural against the rent reduction program. The tenants Vietnam. The question which had been raised had heard something about it from a union but left unanswered was, who was going to agent, but not one of them could cite the rent buy the land and pay for it, even at the reason- provisions. This is not surprising, for the prime able price of 850 a hectare? Who indeed? sources of such information and education are On this note we left the Gressier rent- the actively disinterested chief of the province collecting institution and drove into the Gressier and his local arm, the chief of the district, the slums for a talk with the tenants. It was not bored Buddha in sharkskin, intent on his dig- easy at first; they could not see why we should nity to the very end. Not all officials are cut be interested in their relations to the Gressier of the same cloth; there are exceptions. The and clearly suspected our motives, until Mr. chief of the Ca Mau district of Bac Lieu, an Linh convinced them that our motives were ex-Viet Minh adherent, claimed no progress for above suspicion. It should be noted here that the land reform and had a good idea where the the chief of the district was not helpful at all. difficulties lie and where the first remedies He was parked behind our jeep in his Land should be applied. 258 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 Bac Lieu and Land Reform whose land he cultivated. His reply, "I don't know," was not surprising. When he abandoned In an earlier section of this report, an attempt his land to the salt waters, he moved to another was made to sketch the place of Bac Lieu in piece of abandoned land without troubling to South Vietnam. It dealt mainly with the his- find out whose land it was. In reply to a ques- torical and so-called permanent factors which tion, another farmer had this to say: "A week conditioned the development of the province. ago a man came by and told me that I cultivate There are also disturbing elements of recent his land. He did not speak to me about rent but origin, all of considerable importance. The told me to work the land and take good care first, the visible one, is the inundation of tens of it. I don't know the man's name and I don't of thousands of acres of land by sea water in know where he lives." No one present doubted the wake of the washed-away dams which once the veracity of his statement. These farmers are kept the sea in its place. Like so many other not concerned about rent-not yet. Those who dislocations, this is one of the effects of the know the owners of their land had no opinion civil war. A trip from the city of Bac Lieu down on the subject, having heard very little about the to Gia Rai and on to Ca Mau bears ample wit- reform program. Every one complained about ness of stricken land. As one farmer put it, the lack of something; if it wasn't the lack of "A wet bottom is good for our rice land, but a a buffalo, it was the lack of farm equipment, salty bottom is good only for brush." Thousands seed, credit, or drainage facilities. One farmer of farmers have been compelled to look for land summed it all up: "Our condition is difficult." elsewhere. The draining and rebuilding of the We asked him if he was better off ten years land is a top-priority task, the realization of ago; he said he was, and that then his landlord which cannot be postponed indefinitely. supplied him with all the necessary means to Point number two is that the buffalo is very work the land. "Would you like to see the much on the mind of the tenants-and almost landlord back?" "No, let the government give all farmers here are tenants. It is not easy to me three hectares and a pair of buffalo, and I convey to the reader the single-mindedness of will pay for them in installments." Clearly, he a tenant who has no buffalo unless he has did not want the landlord back; his ideal was watched-let alone tried-the "plowing" of a a version of the American "forty acres and a rice field with a hoe spade. Without the buffalo, mule." we pointed out elsewhere, the tenant considers The outstanding impression was the poverty himself landless though he has land to cultivate. of the farmers, although most of them paid When, in our presence, an official once sug- little and some paid no rent at all. There is no gested to a group of farmers that tractors might evidence that the activities of the Viet Minh take the place of buffaloes, the reply was: "Give among the farmers resulted in any substantial us buffaloes." If it is true that in Ca Mau the benefits despite the redistribution of some con- pre-civil war buffalo population of 30,000 has fiscated land of absentee landlords and the ad- declined to about 3,000, then the problem is monition of the Viet Minh-"work all the land indeed formidable. This estimate is probably you want." A couple of farmers were bold greatly exaggerated, but the theme "we want enough to state in the presence of officials that buffaloes" has recurred much too often not to the Viet Minh were good to them; no rent, and be a problem of immediate importance and tax on output was only 5 percent. This does urgency. not accord with other evidence. Moreover, it is Point number three is that, to the farmers obvious that after nearly ten years of Commu- we talked to, rent reduction as such is not a nist rule over the countryside the farmers are great problem. We have met with this situa- indeed in bad shape. tion in other provinces; but in these dis- They look to the government for assistance; tricts, or rather sections of districts, not many the question is whether the national govern- landlords have felt safe enough to return ment will take the opportunity and help fill in and take stock of their holdings. Where they the gaps. If it does, it must go beyond rent re- have returned, the situation is quite differ- duction. All other needs the farmers mentioned ent. On one occasion, we asked a farmer are by far of greater importance. The farmers South Vietnam Revisited 259 believe that the government has not yet made of one of his assistants: "Can you recall how known its concern for their welfare. So far, we taxed the farmers in our Viet Minh days?" the government is identified here with military It might be appropriate to note here that ex- pacification activities since the takeover in Feb- Viet Minh in the service of the national gov- ruary. A farmer expressed this idea, in this ernment is a common practice. Nobody raises manner: "National government is active only an eyebrow; nor did we on this occasion but when we see national government troops come simply proceeded with the business at hand. It through." Nor can one place the burden of was clear that the ex-Viet Minh official and responsibility upon the local officials. The offices two of his assistants, also ex-Viet Minh, had a of the chiefs of province and the district offices good knowledge of the Viet Minh tax prac- are not equipped to carry out government poli- tices. Without referring to the Communist tax cies in the villages even if they wanted to. They bible, "The Agricultural Tax," published by the haven't the people, to begin with. Bac Lieu Communists on July 15, 1951, with that singu- with its enormous rice area of 300,000 hectares lar title page inscription, "The Democratic has one agricultural officer, and there is not an- Republic of Viet Nam, Seventh Year, Inde- other in any of the four districts into which pendence-Freedom-Happiness," they launched the province is divided. This fact has not been into jotting down on a sheet of paper the lost on the district chiefs of Gia Rai and Ca ABC's of the Viet Minh tax practices. They Mau, particularly the latter. While they are not coincided fairly closely with the items contained agricultural specialists, they know only too well in the Viet Minh tax book. the effects of the Viet Minh upon the farmers; Tenants, owner cultivators, and landlords all they know that the eradication of that influence were subject to taxation under the Viet Minh, is not a military task. the scale ranging stiff-stiffer-stiffest. Exemptions were almost nonexistent, since the Communists levied a 6 percent tax even on those so-called Ca Mau and the Viet Minh producers whose output was only from 61 to 75 kilograms per capita, far below their own Throughout the civil war Ca Mau was one of consumption requirements. To be sure, hardly the principal centers of Viet Minh activity in any farmer in Vietnam produces that little, but South Vietnam. It was also the staging center the Viet Minh position that even the smallest of Viet Minh armed forces preparatory to their of the small producers is subject to tax is sig- removal to North Vietnam in compliance with nificant. What this district chief told us con- the Geneva agreement. According to local offi- firms the official Communist dictum that "The cials, they left behind very potent ideas and agricultural tax concerns everyone who has agents among the farmers. How deep this in- crops, be he landowner or tenant farmer . . . It fluence runs or how numerous the agents are, is obvious that the agricultural tax must be no official would venture to guess; but the dis- levied on the vast majority of farmers who will trict chiefs of Gia Rai and Ca Mau agree that pay a rational part of their yield, a part which in a free election held today the majority of will not affect their normal standard of living the farmers would vote for the Viet Minh. and at the same time will concentrate a rela- Wherein lie the causes for this support and how tively large amount of food." What is that can they be eliminated? An attempt to answer "rational" part which, in the words of an old these queries had been made in the previous saying, would keep the sheep alive and the reports. However, since Ca Mau and other sec- wolves happy? tions of Bac Lieu are special cases of Commu- Leaving the landlords out of the picture, nist infestations, the problem can fruitfully be these are the tax burdens a tenant and an owner touched upon again, particularly as the district cultivator have to bear under the Viet Minh. chief of Ca Mau, a former laborer in the Com- If, for example, an owner cultivator works 5 munist vineyard, was willing to air his views hectares yielding 500 units of rice or 10,000 on the subject. kilograms and has a family of five, he must pay At one point, early in our discussion about a tax on output of 2,000 kilograms per capita. Viet Minh tax practices, he casually inquired This puts him in the 31 percent tax bracket, 260 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 which in turn is supplemented by a basic 15 Minh confidence and consulting with them im- percent tax, so that he pays a total of 46 percent pressed and flattered the farmers. It gave them of the output. If a farmer (tenant) cultivates a sense of participation and belonging never 5 hectares of somebody else's land yielding experienced before, and the support of the Viet 10,000 kilograms, he is taxed on the production Minh was a natural development. The chief of of 7,500 kilograms, the rest being charged pre- the district, certainly above the average cut in sumably to rent. On this basis and with the same intelligence, stated that until 1953 he, too, a number of mouths to feed, he pays 27 percent non-Communist opponent of the French, ac- plus the 15 percent basic tax, or a total of 42 cepted the gospel of the Viet Minh. As if in percent. The majority of tenants of Vietnam self-justification, he cited the life of extreme produce from a 1,000 to 1,500 kilograms per austerity of the Viet Minh soldier combined capita. The Viet Minh enforced the tax law with a discipline that was much admired by him with their customary vigor. The tenants were as well as by the common people. "The Viet paying a tax ranging from 36 percent (21 plus Minh soldiers," he said, "lived with the people; 15) to 41 percent (26 plus 15). Assuming they lived frugally, and people pitied them and that they paid no rent at all, the burden was loved them. The people remember that the na- perhaps only slightly less than that in the pre- tional troops fought under the French leader- Communist days when the landlord's rent was ship and did not behave well. It will take time the main charge. to dispel these memories.- The claim of two tenants that the Viet Minh Terror as a method of enforcing the "will of were "good to them" because of the alleged the people" was among the noneconomic fac- small, 5 percent tax seemed questionable to us, tors he cited. But in his opinion leadership and even if allowance were made for a margin of organization as means of identifying the Viet error in favor of the tenants. The ready official Minh with the people were by far the more answer that they must have been pro-Viet Minh potent weapons. He called this to our attention did not explain why their allegiance lies in that when we raised the question why the Commu- direction. More particularly, it did not explain nist influence continues to persist at a time why the local officials were so certain that the when to all outward appearances the Viet Minh majority of the tenants would vote for the Viet have gone. In his view the Viet Minh organi- Minh despite the economic burden imposed zation is intact in Ca Mau and in other parts upon them, especially in view of the fact that of Bac Lieu. Only the methods of operation the organized military force of the Communists change some. "They are not overtly active," he has gone north. continued; "they behave in a manner calculated We addressed these questions to the ex-Viet to minimize our activities. I don't know the Minh official. The principal answer he gave is leaders-the roots; I know only some of the roughly the same we heard in central Vietnam agents and the followers-the leaves. To com- and in other provinces of South Vietnam: the bat them we must have the people to eradicate farmers did not look upon the rice tax as eco- the roots. Leaves grow with every season even nomic exploitation. If our informants' state- if we pluck them between seasons." ments were correct, the farmers themselves Our final question was the natural and most practically administered the rice tax because of difficult one: "How would you combat the Viet their supposed conviction that theirs was but a Minh influence?" The district chief began by voluntary contribution to the People's War pointing to the rent reduction as a good first for Liberation. To promote that particular goal, step if all other needs are dealt with simultane- the Communist leadership succeeded in con- ously. Although the tenants display no en- vincing large sections of the people that they, thusiasm about the reform, he believed that the people, truly matter and that the economic with the return of the landlords, land reform imposts and other hardships were self-imposed may assume considerable significance in the by the multitude rather than by a small group eyes of these very tenants. However, this was with interests all of their own. This altogether merely an introduction to his main theme that new approach of not merely telling the people the Viet Minh are operating in the villages what to do but of taking them into the Viet without any opposition, that it was high time South Vietnam Revisited 261 for the national government to combat them entirely different and, to us, unusual set of on their own ground, employing a method as circumstances. The reference is to a trip under- simple and subtle as that employed by the Viet taken by Mr. Thoi, the minister of agrarian Minh. The method which he expounded may reform, in order to study at firsthand agrarian be summarized as follows: In appearance a reform developments in the provinces of Can Viet Minh agent looks like any other villager Tho, Soc Trang, and Bac Lieu. of comparable age. He lives and by-and-large This observer was part of the minister's en- behaves like most farmers. He is undistinguish- tourage. It was a big one: five carloads of offi- able from his surroundings. He is always con- cials who had not been out in the field since cerned with public opinion. Because he is in the inauguration of the program six months underground status, he sells his views and ac- ago. Everything was prearranged with pomp tions retail rather than wholesale. Said the dis- and circumstance-the priority crossing of the trict chief: "When he walks the village street ferries, the flag-bedecked cities (notably Bac and sees an old farmer bending under the bur- Lieu), the brass bands, the honor guards, lunch- den of a heavy rake, he will be right there saying eons and dinners (printed menus on two occa- 'Father, may I help you?' When he learns that sions), and hundreds of landlords and tenants a widow is short of help in the field, you will attending the meetings. We had some grave find him deep in the muck of the rice paddy misgivings about the value of the enterprise- working his way into public opinion. No job until the first tenant had had his say. Our fears is too hard, too big, or too small for the agent." were understandable, for as we looked at the To the listener this sounded like an idealized visitors and local dignitaries ranged around the view of the Communist agent in action; there speakers' tables and the first row of the audi- may have crept into his account echoes of his ence, we saw mostly impeccable white "shark- own former association with the Viet Minh and skin" contrasting sharply with the nondescript the frustrations his current job entails. Allowing dress of the mass of the people occupying the for all these, the undisputed fact is that in Ca rest of the hall. The thought that the proceed- Mau and Gia Rai the Viet Minh agents have ings might degenerate into just another variety the run of the countryside for their efforts. of a "Potemkin village" was very strong. But Making friends and influencing people is surely our fears were groundless. Times have changed. not a Communist monopoly. Their hold can be Landlords and tenants spoke their minds with broken and eradicated. More troops and more utter frankness and ease. The presence of the security have only limited value; they fall far notables did not inhibit the tenants in the least. short of solving or eradicating the tensions Stiffness and occasional double-talk was largely which are so easily exploited by the Commu- a contribution of officialdom. In retrospect, the nists. The nationalist government must chal- trip was one of our most rewarding experi- lenge their monopoly by giving the kind of aid ences to date, even if deeply troubling. the farmers hope to get as well as by doing the From the very outset, following the usual kind of work the district chief was talking exchange of amenities between the minister and about-work for which there is no substitute if the chiefs of province, one sensed that the at- the government and the farmers are to come mosphere was charged with tension, suspicion, closer together. and a seemingly irreconcilable conflict between the tenants and the landlords. All the hopes, aspirations, and fears were written large in the Minister Thoi Meets the Farmers faces of the contending parties; the landlords argued their position with considerable re- The observations made thus far are a product straint, while many of the tenants spoke with of brief visits without prearrangement or fan- passion and anger, leaving no doubt in any- fare and of discussions with individuals or one's mind that for them land rents and security small groups. The subsequent paragraphs, how- of tenure are matters of life and death. ever, which may well serve as an indication of From the experiences of this trip, a number what is on the mind of the tenants and land- of facts have emerged. The principal one, that lords of South Vietnam, derive from an the land reform program is not off the ground 262 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 yet, was not new. It was not necessary to take a to minimize the landlord-tenant conflicts? Can vote as to how many tenants and landlords a single rate be effectively applied, and what present at the meetings have signed contracts of the consequences of such a move at this under the provisions of the ordinances. Much date? In cases where the Viet Minh distributed to the embarrassment of the major, who had land among the tenants, can such land be taken two weeks earlier claimed that everything was back by the landlords if they refuse to sign under control, a landlord of Bac Lieu stood up contracts or pay rent? Can the landlord recover and stated that in his estimate more than 80 such land if the tenants wish to sign contracts percent of landlords and tenants have signed and pay rent? While the dispute is on, who no contracts. He underestimated the degree of enjoys the right of cultivation? noncompliance, for we found no landlord or These unresolved questions and those men- tenant present who was willing to admit the tioned earlier indeed handicap the implementa- existence of such contracts. It was apparent, tion of the reform. It would be a mistake, how- too, that both parties were poorly acquainted ever, to assume that they are the principal cause with the provisions of the program. This was of the failure to accept the program by landlords obvious from such questions as: Has the pro- and tenants alike. Perhaps the principal reason prietor the right not to renew a contract upon is the rent provision calling for a payment of its expiration? Can he take the land back for 15 to 25 percent of the crop. This is the major nonpayment of rent? Can the landlord recover factor that divides the tenants and landlords the land on the ground of self-cultivation? Is a into two camps. The former wish to pay no verbal landlord-tenant agreement valid? Has more than 15 percent and the latter will not the tenant the right of cultivation in case his lease the land for less than 25 percent. What landlord sells the land to somebody else? Have is meat for the tenants is obviously poison to nonabsentee owners the choice between contract the landlords, and vice versa. References to the A and B under the ordinances? The answers to past, when rentals were closer to 40 or more these questions are in the text of the provisions; percent of the crop, make no impression on the responsibility for the lack of familiarity is the tenants; the immediate past of little or no largely that of the central and local authorities rent is what the tenants remember best. And who have made virtually no effort to publicize besides, "How can we pay a higher rent," says and explain the ordinances. Failure to answer a spokesman for the tenants, "when most of us these questions in the field are evidence of the have no credit, no animals, or seed. Our chil- total absence of an administrative machine to dren are hungry because they have no rice and implement the program. our buffaloes have died. Landlords always say A host of other questions was raised, for tenants don't cooperate; how can we when the which the text of the law is no help but which landlords don't understand our plight? Let the furnished ample food for thought to the very government understand that our three needs are capable deputy director for agrarian reform, land to cultivate, credit, and buffaloes. If we Nguyen Manh Tu. Some of these are: How don't have them and the Viet Minh invite us can the ineffectiveness of the joint committees to their parties, we go to get a bite; but if we at the various levels be remedied? How can had enough to eat we'd rather stay home." The the conflicts between the tenants and owners be fundamental split on the rental provision is resolved in case of nonconciliation through also a sign of the changing times. The 15 to 25 mediation? Considering the current state of the percent rent provision is closely tied tip with the committee, is it advisable to have the agrarian productivity of a given piece of land and who disputes settled through the juridical courts? determines the final estimate. "In the old days," What is the meaning of the term "principal an- a tenant remarked, "what the landlord said the nual crop"? Can the owner charge rent for both land produced was law and I paid accordingly. crops of rice if there are two successive crops Now I know what it produces and I don't ac- of rice a year on the same land? What is the cept his estimate any longer." He voiced a minimum acreage a tenant may work by him- break with a practice which formerly demon- self? How can the rent provision be changed strated to the tenant that the landlord had un- South Vietnam Revisited 263 disputed control over the land. His challenge land because they refused to pay the landlords cf this custom is bound to widen the gulf be- a rental of 35 percent of the crop. Ninety per- tween landlord and tenant. It all adds up to cent of the farmers in the village are tenants. one big conflict which, if not averted, may be If the landlords should continue to dispossess at white heat before much longer. them in order to get higher rent and prosecute The position the tenants took did not sur- them for disobedience, the conflict will end in prise us; it merely underscored what we have bloodshed." This was a threat which could not observed in other provinces of Vietnam. What have gone unnoticed. Other speakers followed; was strikingly new about these meetings was and although no one else mentioned bloodshed the much stiffened position of the landlords. as a means of settling landlord-tenant conflicts, Whereas only a short while back we met land- enough had been said to give pause to the most lords willing to abide by the provisions of the unreconstructed landlord bent on maintaining land reform program on the theory that a bird the previous status quo. On the other hand, as in hand is what counts, while the tenants were one watched the landlords defend their in- the reluctant ones, the landlords' more recent terests, without hardly a suggestion of en- stand in these provinces reveals that they are in lightened self-interest, one was ready to doubt no hurry either. Their insistence on 25 percent whether the lessons of the past ten years have (or more) is not the sole factor. Not a few left any serious imprint upon those whom the among them insist on retroactive payment of events should have affected most. rent as a condition for signing a contract; in One other development was typical of all one case the landlord demanded eight years back the proceedings, namely, the question of land payments of rent. Not a few are trying to get ownership versus tenancy. In Can Tho, for ex- land back fromn the tenants for a variety of rea- ample, this came in for more discussion than sons. In the process there have been instances rent reduction; the same, if to a lesser degree, where local officials exercised their authority to was true of Soc Trang and Bac Lieu. The idea the point of jailing tenants for failure to clear of land ownership has the keenest appeal to the off the land. These revelations were the most tenants. Once it is mentioned, they don't let dramatic incidents of the sessions. They were go of it. Under their prodding the visitors and pin-pointed by tenant after tenant reciting per- the local authorities responded by saying that sonal experiences. On a few occasions tenants land redistribution is one of the ultimate goals addressed their landlords present among the of the national government. One chief of a assembled, accusing them of attempting to de- province was carried away by this theme to prive them of the land or of demanding retro- greater lengths than he had meant to go. He active payment of rent. Such confrontations re- tried to recover himself when he concluded on sulted in charges and countercharges mostly to this note: "Don't you go home beating your the embarrassment of the landlords. It would breasts and telling the other tenants that the appear that the landlords are trying to reassert land is theirs." their pre-civil war position with regard to the It was a fair warning, for there will be many control of their land. This seems to be a recent a slip between wanting the land and getting it. development, particularly in areas where se- The landlords, particularly the bigger ones, are curity has been re-established and help from interested in selling out. Their bold front, as if local authorities can be safely counted upon. little or nothing has changed, is more form than Such moves on the part of landlords lead to substance. There is not a landlord in Vietnam the extreme polarization of the village com- who would not concede that land ownership of munity and, by the same token, to serious po- the traditional sort has fallen on evil days. There litical consequences. This is not simply the are probably not many big owners who do not writer's speculation. A tenant suggested the believe that sooner or later they will have to possible outcome. Without raising his voice part with much, if not all, of their land. Above and addressing himself to the landlords, he all, they know that the days of undisputed con- made this observation: "In my village three trol of the land are on the way out-hence the tenants were recently deprived of their rented desire to sell. The stumbling block, of course, 264 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 is the method of payment. The price itself is Summary and Conclusion no great deterrent; the going price of good land is relatively cheap, $50 to $60 a hectare The principal impressions of the recent trips at the open rate of exchange. Tenants also as- through South Vietnam are as follows: sume that the land will have to be paid for; but First, the rent reduction program is six just as the rental provision in the rent reduc- months old, but in terms of effective imple- tion program divides the two groups, so does mentation it is hardly out of the paper stage. the method of payment for purchase of land, Second, while the ordinances contain flaws, although the issue for the moment is academic. they are not the major impediments. The out- The landlords know that they cannot get full standing and overriding handicap is the total payment in cash to effect a sale. The con- absence of any administrative organization to sensus among them was 50 percent cash and implement the program. In Japan, in conditions the remainder in five yearly installments. A of a well functioning government and a host number of tenants spoke of ten annual pay- of capable technicians, the land reform pro- ments with no cash down; a few expressed will- grain was carried out with the assistance of ingness to pay one-third of the annual crop, nearly 400,000 paid and volunteer workers. In and at least one tenant said a 20 percent initial all of Vietnam there are not 400 people di- payment might be reasonable. At this point rectly and actively engaged in this task. somebody raised the embarrassing $64 ques- Third, the tenants are more interested in tion-where will the tenants get the cash? It ownership of the land than in rent reduction. was clear as day that they had none. The land- Rent reduction and security of tenure have al- lords did not contest this fact. ready begun to embroil the tenants and the It was then up to the minister to speak for landlords in a bitter fight. It is doubtful whether the government. This he did in generalities, it can be settled to any one's satisfaction. The partly because the government has no land pur- discontent and unrest adversely affecting the chase policy of its own and partly because he political stability of the countryside will cease knew that the government has not a nickel in only when the tenants become owners of the the till for such purposes. Nevertheless, he and land they cultivate. his assistants understood that the tenants were Fourth, neither rent reduction nor land vastly more interested in land ownership than in ownership can meet the immediate and urgent rent reduction. As on similar occasions when need of the farmers for credit, irrigation and something had to be said to meet the plea for drainage facilities, buffaloes, and fertilizer. In assistance and to allay the sharp criticism of the minds of a good many farmers these items the government for inaction, the minister fell loom larger than the land question. back on a 225 million piastres credit fund Fifth, the land in South Vietnam is plenti- (furnished by the United States) as the would- ful and rich and the condition of the land and be miracle performer. In view of the overall of the farmers can be improved. Failure to im- credit needs, this is not a large fund; moreover, prove it means gteater poverty, feeding greater t ipolitical and social tensions to a point of en- it is an emergency fund intended primarily to dangering the very stability of Vietnam. This assist refugees and other farmers ready to take is a possibility, for in the final analysis the up abandoned land rather than to assist farmers future of the country will be shaped not so already on land. Being hard pressed, the minister much by the events in Saigon as by the events disregarded this distinction and freely played in the thousands of villages where the people with the 225 million piastres as if it were a live and in the rice paddies where they work. magic wand, spreading cheer in all directions. Sixth, the greatest impediment to harnessing He had to say something to smooth the very the elements which make for progress is the much ruffled spirits of the farmers he was ad- character of the national and local acninistra- dressing. There is a strong possibility, however, tions. Chiefly for historical reasons, their efforts that the chickens will come home to roost a in the field of agricultural improvement have while later, with feeble prospects that his promis- been inconsequential. sory notes will be made good. Seventh, the effectiveness of American tech- South Vietnam Revisited 265 nical assistance depends in large measure upon Viewed as an emergency effort with an eye the government doing its part. For this reason, mainly on making political capital, the ab- our aid cannot be more than marginal to the normal conditions should not deter us from effort put forth by the government and the furnishing the money quickly in the hope that people in order to achieve their aims. it will reach the farmers without the usual de- Eighth, relating our future activities to the lays. Any return above that, such as the founda- specific conditions in Vietnam, it is well to tion of a lasting farm credit system and repay- appreciate the fact that for some time to come ment of most or the major part of the loans, we may have to work in conditions where the will be most welcome indeed. It would be a effort is perfunctory, inefficient, or fainthearted mistake, however, to pin high hopes on such an and where the will of those who must help outcome. themselves is but a slender reed on which to Providing farmers with buffaloes belongs in pin our will and our hopes. the same quick-impact category. This operation Despite the strong reservations, a fresh at- must be a selective one with an emphasis on tempt should be made to consider a program those parts of the country where the require- which, by a process of peaceful change, would ments and Communist penetration are greatest. help better the conditions of the farmers. No The districts of Ca Mau and Gia Rai of Bac attempt is made here to set forth the details Qf Lieu province are a case in point. There the such a program but rather to raise a few points farmers suffered great losses of animals, and which may serve as guidelines for the national the distribution of approximately 8,000 to government and USOM, both for immediate 10,000 buffaloes by the national government and future courses of action. The program is would go a long way towards a closer and more to serve a twofold purpose: one with a possible friendly relationship between the people and immediate impact upon the village community, the government. Whether the farmers should the other of a long-range character and equally pay for them in full or should receive them at concerned with the welfare of the farmers, a much reduced price or as an outright gift is The well-known internal political conditions open to debate; in this instance a middle course amply justify a program of this type. Its con- seems to be the sounder approach. Regardless tent is not an issue. The farmers have provided of the terms, if we decide to supply animals to the answer when, time after time in central or the farmers, the execution of this project must South Vietnam, they have stated that their basic be carried out at the expense of red tape at requirements are credit, buffaloes, fertilizer, and every administrative level. This remark is farm tools. prompted by the slow motion buying of buf- Needs are relative, but the credit need is a faloes from Thailand, in which we have been desperate one. In face of this, the traditional engaged in recent months. If the process is to credit sources have dried out and nothing has be repeated because every "t" must be crossed taken their place. The American fund of 225 and every "i" must be dotted, the animals will million piastres can reach only farmers or refu- not get there in time to carry out effectively gees taking up abandoned land. They are but this limited program encompassing only Ca the great minority of the farm population. The Mau and Gia Rai. majority of the farmers are just as anxious to Fertilizers and farm tools could be put to become recipients of such assistance. If this the same use. That we have, for example, unex- were to be done with telling results in 1955-56, pended funds for fertilizer, or fertilizer in ware- another American credit fund of $20 to $30 houses which has not been distributed, doesn't million will be necessary. Having provided the argue against the great need for fertilizer. It money, we shall have to be content with a only means that either the terms of distribu- makeshift distributive mechanism and with the tion or the process of moving it from the ware- realization that little of this will be repaid. house to the end user call for revision and im- These disturbing assumptions stem from two provements. This is true of credit and animal conditions: the speed with which the credit distribution and of virtually every other pro- fund must be put into operation and the ab- gram we are trying to promote in Vietnam. sence of a tried and tested credit organization. These are tasks for the national government to 266 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 resolve, and it has been resolving them ever so ments, and it is up to the government to find slowly. Nevertheless, this being an emergency the money if this is the scheme it prefers. Un- we cannot but assume that we shall succeed official suggestions that we should underwrite this time in prodding the government into ac- this type of financing have been discouraged. tion. Any other assumption would preclude the Official requests should meet with the same re- success of the program even before we start. sponse. If we don't, many another Asian country As regards the long-range program, credit will ask for similar aid in order to bail out their and fertilizers are a part of it in addition to landlords. Finally, it must be stressed that in irrigation and drainage, extension, cooperatives, this field pregnant with political and social and land reform. But we cannot do everything significance we cannot substitute our will for at once. Precisely because free Vietnam is here their will; we cannot carry out the program for to stay, we ought to be selective and concen- them. The government and the people must trate only on those items about which the have the resolve to do it. The ingredients of farmers feel keenest. In the American farm our effort must be limited to financial aid on tradition an extension service is all-important, the one hand and endless prodding to stimulate but in Vietnam it is peripheral. A pilot project initiative, self-reliance, and responsibility on here and there is all we need to do for some the other. time to come. The same is true with coopera- As to irrigation and drainage, it should be rives. On the other hand, credit, fertilizers, irri- noted that only a judicious control of water can gation and drainage, and land reform are the raise production on the double-cropped fields of things the farmers want most; and these are the central Vietnam or introduce a measure of heart of the long-range program. double cropping into South Vietnam. Preceded With respect to land reform, it may be as- by a careful study of irrigation possibilities, we sumed that rent reduction will give way to land should be prepared to concentrate ample means redistribution. For reasons already stated, even and a large number of technicians to further if the rent reduction program were imple- such a program. Other useful but nonessential mented at some future date, the political gains projects may go by the board, but this need of the government and the economic gains of not trouble us so long as the problems that the tenants would be minimal. Since ownership truly matter are dealt with resolutely. Fertilizer of the land by the tenants of Vietnam, particu- requirements are not only top priority for the larly in South Vietnam, is inevitable (the moment. The consumption of fertilizer could change of status being only a matter of time), and should be expanded, and it need not be a we should urge upon the government the initia- giveaway scheme. The distribution mechanism tion of this measure. The price of inaction may and terms of distribution are the problems. A well be tenant action without due process of program akin to that in Formosa would go a law. long way to satisfy this need. The rich experi- Usom's position toward a land ownership ence in Formosa and the experience of the program implies twofold assistance: technical American specialists who have been instru- advice in drafting the program and financial mental in developing this program would be assistance to help create the administrative arm invaluable in Vietnam. We are already involved of the program. Naturally, the government ex- in farm credit as part of our aid to the refugee pects much heavier financial support. In this resettlement, but the expansion of credit facili- connection it should be made clear that the real ties to cover some of the requirements of the land distribution problem is neither the will- nonrefugee farmers is certainly on a par with ingness of the owners to sell the land nor the the other items mentioned here. What is in- price; the problem lies in the terms of payment. volved is the creation of a national farm credit The government has stated that it intends to do system, and that is a long, drawn-out affair. justice to the landlords and tenants alike. This To date, the efforts of the government to means that the purchase of the land will call improve the condition of the farmers are hardly for initial heavy outlays, a down payment of worth recording. It is not surprising, therefore, at least 25 percent of the agreed price of the that our own strivings have not been too suc- land. The tenants cannot make any such pay- cessful. We are not without a small share of South Vietnam Revisited 267 responsibility for the meager results of our aid. so, they will gradually forget both the old ways Part of the difficulty may be traced to the idea and foreign origin of the new ways which have that our main function is to give advice to supplanted them. This type of service in con- officials who, unfortunately, either do not care junction with concentration on a few well- for the advice or are indifferent or are in- chosen objectives might well spell the difference capable of translating it into action. There is between success and failure. yet another reason. With small resources in The degree of success will depend upon the men and money, we have engaged in an emer- internal stability of the country and the compe- gency program of "bits and pieces"; in the tence with which the national government will eagerness to accomplish a great deal, we have administer the country. But whatever one's spread ourselves so thin sponsoring a multitude misgivings about the applicability of these cri- of projects in virtually every major field of agri- teria, it is clear that if Vietnamese farm econ- culture that the effort has left only a few marks omy is to be moved off dead center in the upon the face of the land of Vietnam. desired direction, it is time that we re-examine If the above comment is valid, it would searchingly our objectives, our methods, and seem that we might do well to shift from trying our resources. The few suggestions outlined to do a great variety of things with few people here may be found wanting; they are intended and little money to a much-reduced number of primarily as points of departure for further dis- projects and only two or three major fields upon cussion, and they have been motivated by the which the very existence of the country's agri- belief that our current program does not hold culture depends. And we should undertake the promise for greater accomplishments in the task with a good many more people and a good future. deal more money than we have at our disposal The simple, unadorned truth is that in Viet- at the present time. This approach also calls nam the peasant is the center of the piece. If for a change in the emphasis on the advisory we are to help him to become a useful, self- role played by our agricultural specialists. We reliant citizen, making the most of his land, have been here long enough to appreciate how and giving his allegiance to the national govern- important it is to advise or to prod the officials ment, then we must make an effort equal to in Saigon as a prelude to any action. And yet, this goal, particularly since we are faced with fundamentally, the place of the technician is the excruciatingly difficult problem of inducing not Saigon but the field. The process of transfer the Vietnamese to fulfill their major part of of knowledge and techniques are certainly not the undertaking. We cannot therefore achieve easy in a country such as Vietnam. Unless the the objective with a program and human and specialist can demonstrate to the farmer, the material resources which are inadequate to the experiment station man, or the would-be ex- task. We cannot afford to forget that much of tension-service man how this or that is done our economic and noneconomic aid to Vietnam and the advantages in new ways of doing stands or falls in the degree to which the great things, the old ways will remain intact. In Viet- majority of the people share or don't share in it. nam, where the few native-trained agricultural Nor can we afford to forget that the welfare specialists are practically all concentrated in of the peasant is the welfare of Vietnam. A Saigon or in the few other larger provincial wise but unnamed Chinese philosopher summed capitals, there is no substitute for the day-to- it up in these words: "The well-being of a day field work of the American specialist. Once people is like a tree; agriculture is its root, the advantages of the new ways are convinc- manufacture and commerce are its branches and ingly demonstrated, the farmers will make its life; if the root is injured, the leaves fall, them their own; and, as they succeed in doing the branches break away, and the tree dies." 268 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 29. U.S. Aid for Land Reform in Vietnam By early July 1956 President Diem had decided to carry out a land redistribution program in the southern part of the country, where large landholdings and tenancy were most pronounced. In anticipation of this, Ladejinsky here writes to his old friend, Raymond Moyer, to ask for U.S. assistance in financing the pending program. Moyer had been Ladejinsky's chief in the Washington years in the Far East division of the Foreign Agricultural Relations Office; subsequently, he was a U.S. member of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction in China and responsible for invoking Ladejinsky's assistance there. In July 1956 he was regional director for the Far East in the U.S. aid agency (by now, the International Co-operation Administration). He was therefore on two counts the "right" person for Ladejinsky to turn to. A third reason would be Moyer's sympathetic understanding of the values and views Ladejinsky espoused. Ladejinsky's letter is dated July 10, 1956. THANK YOU FOR THE NOTE. I was glad to ernment will buy the land from the landlords hear from you, but, as I mentioned on another at a fixed price, give them an initial cash pay- occasion, you needn't bother acknowledging ment equivalent to 10 to 15 percent of the price the occasional items I send along; I know you of the land, and make the remainder payable in are busy. bonds. The tenants in turn will pay for the land The purpose of this letter is to apprise you in a number of annual installments. The im- of an impending development with which you mediate problem is to find $30 million to make are, I believe, already familiar in a general way. good the initial cash payment to the landlords. Only the other day it appeared that on July 20, The government hopes that the United States the second anniversary of the Geneva Agree- would provide the sum as a grant or loan, pref- ment, the government of Vietnam would state erably the former. publicly its intention to carry out a land redis- The reform is aimed at the southern part of tribution program. For reasons I describe in a Vietnam where holdings are large and the ten- subsequent paragraph, the announcement is ants are legion. Central Vietnam is a different being delayed until October 26, the first anni- case altogether and will not be dealt with for versary of the founding of the Republic of the time being. Vietnam. Having had something to do with the matter The background of this development is a bit in my past and present capacities, my own complicated, but the essence of the matter is comment may not be out of order. First of all, this: the rent reduction program is no great I share my chief's view that the land must be shakes, and the president has come to appreciate given to the landless without delay and for the significance of a "Land to the tillers" pro- well-known reasons. Procrastination will not gram. He is thoroughly convinced of the do any longer-not if we are interested in the urgency of a measure of this kind. He has dis- survival of Vietnam on the side of the free cussed it with the two top American officials world. This may sound alarmist, but in the here, and he has also stated the case for the southern part of Vietnam, which is the agri- reform for the benefit of a very important cultural heart of the country, the landless who personage who has just passed through Saigon. cultivate 75 percent of the land are not in a According to the current thinking, the gov- happy frame of mind. The landlords feel no U.S. Aid for Land Reform in Vietnam 269 better, and the upshot is that government tax granting of the money would in itself be a collections are at a vanishing point. On the great stimulus in approaching more realistically political side, the repercussions may be worse the problems I mentioned above. Moreover, it and the government is cognizant of that. is clear that none of the funds would be spent Second, while $30 million is a lot of money, unless there is something to spend them on. it is a modest sum when viewed in the context We must be prepared for rough going, but of the purpose to which it will be put and the there is another side of the picture which need anticipated effects. I am told that it costs not be overlooked. Knowing something of the hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain one president's determination and drive, I believe U.S. division in the field. As against this, $30 that this time it will be different. It will be a million will enable the government of Vietnam case of waging a war that must be won. In to secure the support of the overwhelming ma- the tradition-ridden Vietnamese society this is jority of the people; in time of need they may an Herculean task, but the president views be expected to make up many a loyal armed these difficulties as so many challenges. division. He needs assistance to overcome some of Two other considerations enter into the pic- the landlord opposition, but not assistance to ture: the rapid pace of economic development bail the landlords out. The sum involved is in North Vietnam, assisted by the Russians, much too small for that. Moreover, the president Chinese, East Germans, Czechs, and Poles, and is motivated primarily by the welfare of the the wave of neutralism which is engulfing all of landless. "The reform," as the president point- the mainland of Southeast Asia. In these cir- edly reminded a number of his ministers-not cumstances, South Vietnam is the only uncom- a few of them big land proprietors-"is not an promisingly anti-Communist, anti-neutralist accommodation for landlords; it is a revolution." state in Southeast Asia. It is an outpost we can- The anticipated aid from the United States is to not afford not to strengthen in every way. The speed up and smooth the process of an orderly scheme under consideration is perhaps the most reform from the top. The stakes in this under- important step in that direction. It appears to taking are greater than the risks; the former me, therefore, that the $30 million is not an are nothing less than meeting the Communist excessive contribution towards the realization challenge at a time when all opposition to Com- of a must program about to be undertaken by munism is softening, of broadening the base of the government, in the face of known landlord political power, and of creating some sort of opposition. economic order where little is to be found now. Third, my own concern is not so much the There is nothing theoretical about these money as the virtual lack of a land ownership propositions. They are the realities of present- census, lack of personnel capable of dealing day Vietnam-and I am not unmindful of the with the many other technical problems con- political achievements bordering on the miracu- nected with the preparation of the program, lous. Hence the plea to be bold, to use President and the general absence of an administrative Eisenhower's special aid fund if possible, and, machine to translate the program into action, by the same token, to give added meaning to These are the real, tough problems and they U.S. foreign aid. The president's request falls are very much on my mind. This explains why, into that category. as we talk about money, a coherent program I know that in the established practice of is yet to be drawn up. It explains also why official American economic aid it is safer to most of the Vietnamese agrarian reform at- spend money on no end of orthodox projects, tempts in the past five years have remained as if numbers truly matter and as if "know-how" largely on paper. It explains the postponement must concern itself with physical phenomena cf the announcement. We hope to make good only. There is enough evidence that compel- some of the deficiencies in the interim. lingly calls for at least a dash of a new ap- Skepticism about the new attempt is under- proach. I have in mind certain aspects of the standable, but it would be a mistake not to so-called great debate relating to U.S. foreign resolve the money question now instead of aid practices in general. waiting till the program is all complete. The I am under the impression that the president 270 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 will attempt to see the program through even every, or almost every, phase of a country's re- if he should fail to receive financial assistance quirements. It should be replaced with the from the United States. I share his attitude; and, highest degree of selectivity, backed up by if he needed my encouragement to that end, I massive application of aid. Boldness and im- would cheerfully give it to him. For it is time agination are the inevitable ingredients of this that, with or without foreign assistance, Viet- approach. The agrarian reform very much on nam must come to grips in earnest with this the mind of the president is an example of all-important problem. If I judge the Viet- what I have in mind. namese temper correctly, an American refusal I believe that Ambassador Reinhardt and might have certain undesirable effects. I don't Mr. Barrows favor this approach, and I am wish to imply, however, that U.S.-Vietnamese happy to note that they decidedly favor the relations will be affected to any serious degree land reform idea sponsored by the president. by our failure to assist the country to resolve The fact that they have their reservations about this crucial issue. lack of technical preparedness merely points to Vietnam is not going to trade on both sides their appreciation of local conditions. of the street in the manner of other recipients Finally, I repeat that I am well aware of of U.S. aid. Because of that, in any considera- the difficulties. To the best of my abilities, I am tion of the problem discussed here it is well to conveying their magnitude to the president in keep in mind that, on the mainland of Southeast the hope that something will be done about Asia, Vietnam is just about the only country them. With the best good will and determina- which acts like a true ally. Vietnam's anti- tion, they will have to be battled all the way, Communism and anti-neutralism are not sub- from the initiation to the completion of the ject to bargaining. Vietnam doesn't expect reform. But there is no point throwing up one's special rewards for its fierce opposition to Com- hands in despair. If we did that there would munism. This attitude derives from inner com- have been no Cai San. Happily, we took the pulsions, and this explains its strength. And bull by the horns, paid no heed to the skeptics, precisely for these reasons we can do no less and helped turn wilderness into human habita- than treat Vietnam's "felt needs" with boldness tion. and imagination. Whether Vietnam can con- We must try to repeat the process even vincingly explain how the very last of the $30 though in this instance class antagonisms are million worth of piasters will be spent or how at razor's edge and all other problems are infi- the government intends to repay the loan, if nitely more complicated than those faced at it is a loan, on due dates is important but not Cai San. As in Cai San, but on a much larger crucial. Despite my great uneasiness about con- scale, much improvisation will have to be re- ditions mentioned under "Third," the important sorted to, hoping at the same time that the thing is to see that this reform battle is won. mistakes will not be irreparable. Time is not When that day comes, there will be satisfaction always on our side. Vietnam cannot wait until and glory for all concerned-the people of all "t's" are crossed and all "i's" are dotted. The Vietnam and the people of the United States, time element being what it is, the day will You know my pro-reform bias well enough probably never come when Vietnam will be to know that I am writing in this manner not able to present a "bankable" reform program because I have the privilege of working for on which money can be lent. And so, it comes President Diem. I would have done the same if down to this: Something must be taken on I had remained with ICA [International Co- faith; but, above all, we must dare and carry operation Administration]. They and we need on with the thought that our daring will be Cai Sans in agriculture and in other fields of rewarded. economic development. They and we must sup- I like to think that you will not hold against port reforms which go to the heart of the me this discourse. I am not writing in any matter. They and we must eschew the sin of spirit of criticism. I have no axe to grind other scatteration, which is nothing less than the than the lasting bond between the two coun- pernicious idea that we must concentrate on tries. All the rest is peripheral. Making the Pending Land Redistribution Program More Practicable 271 30. Making the Pending Land Redistribution Program More Practicable I have given the above title to a memorandum Ladejinsky addressed to President Diem on October 9, 1956, under the subject heading "Agrarian Reform." The draft ordinance then pending was issued later that month as ordinance 57. Ladejinsky requested a number of modifications in the draft, before promulgation, to make it more practicable. Among these, he urged a landlord retention ceiling lower than the 100 hectares proposed and a ten-year tenant repayment period rather than the six years proposed. Ladejinsky's 1961 review article reveals that the president did not accept these suggestions. YOU HAVE BEFORE YOU the final draft of tion of the tenant who takes on new obligations the "Ordonnance No. 57 du - Portant as a purchaser of land. I do not question the Reglementation de la R6forme Agraire." Your expertness of the committee in deciding upon approval of the ordinance is indeed a step of six years; nor do I pretend to have intimate major national importance. It is with this in knowledge of the current economic position of mind that I take the liberty of a few comments the tenants; but, unless they are indeed well off, on the land redistribution program about to be I doubt if the six-year period can be enforced. inaugurated. In doing this, I am concerned only For administrative, economic, and political rea- with the soundness of the program and its sons I believe it would be wiser to extend the successful implementation. repayment period to ten years. There seems to My comments relate not so much to the ordi- me no compelling reason to risk the political nance itself as to the measures that should be support of a great many farmers on an issue of taken along with it or even prior to its enact- this kind and to endanger the ultimate goal of ment. But first some observations about the the program. As I shall point out in subsequent ordinance. paragraphs, every precaution must be taken to The ordinance is a well-drawn document, ensure the success of this program-the first outlining the basic provisions of a land transfer land redistribution program in Southeast Asia. program in general terms. It suffers, however, The longer period suggested here is one of the from one weakness already noted on another vital precautions. occasion but worth mentioning once again now Article 4 (paragraph "b") provides that a that the ordinance is about to become the law landlord has a right to retain 100 hectares of of the land. I have reference to article 14, which land. The figure seems high. The permissible states that the tenant should pay for the land in retention determines the scope of the program six annual installments. or the total acreage available for redistribution. In a memorandum of August 17, 1956, I Because of the lack of precise statistical data, stated that from the point of view of a more it is not clear just how much land will be avail- successful implementation of the program, a able for sale to tenants. This much is fairly ten-year period of payment is the more valid obvious: If landlords may retain 100 hectares approach. I need not repeat all the reasons for each, approximately 70 percent of the tenants the position I have taken. I do wish to note, will fall outside the scope of the program. If however, that, since the reform is intended pri- this estimate is roughly correct, then the ques- marily for the benefit of the landless, it would tion may be raised if the retention figure should be dangerous to overestimate the financial posi- not be lowered. The reasoning behind this sug- 272 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 gestion is as follows. The principal purpose of istrative duties with which it is charged. At the agrarian reform is to create as many owner first glance, this may appear superfluous be- farmers as possible. Since it is evident that the cause the Department for Agrarian Reform has tenants can buy land only with the aid of the been in existence since May 1955. However, agrarian reform, the lowering of the retention this is more apparent than real. For many becomes a necessity. months now, the secretary of state for agrarian The members of the Agrarian Reform Coin- reform has been devoting most of his time to mittee have undoubtedly had sound reasons for the Cai San project; under the circumstances, setting the permissible retention at 100 hectares. the department cannot be as effective an organi- Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that zation as it should be. The execution of a the demand for land by the tenants who fail to land transfer is a most demanding and time- qualify under the 100 hectare retention will consuming task; and so long as the secretary's compel a downward revision of the retention. If attention is concentrated elsewhere, the prin- the Agrarian Reform Committee recognizes this cipal tasks suffer accordingly. The Department as a possibility, would it not be preferable to for Agrarian Reform has never been fully make the change now by reducing the retention staffed and organized to meet the needs of ef- limit to 75 or 50 hectares? fective implementation. This is reflected in the Another related consideration bears on the rather unsatisfactory results of the rent reduc- same problem. In a democratic country, no tion program inaugurated in early 1955. With agrarian reform can or should eliminate tenancy these lessons in mind, the execution of the land altogether. At the same time, if it is designed redistribution and of the rent reduction pro- to achieve economic and political stability in grains calls for an administrator thoroughly in the countryside, it must apply to the great ma- accord with the purposes of agrarian reform, jority of the tenants. When this is done, free concentrating only on rural reform activities. Vietnam will not only fulfill the real purpose It will be his task to create what will be in of the reform, but it may also help set the effect a new organization. pattern for the rest of Southeast Asia-and In view of the urgency of the land redistri- beyond. bution program and of strengthening the imple- A revision of the two items would affect mentation of the rent reduction program, the favorably the application of the ordinance, but full-time administrator for agrarian reform it must be stressed that the ordinance by itself, should be given powers wide enough and no matter how sound, cannot implement the budgetary support large enough to create a program. The execution of a program as far- department capable of carrying out the provi- reaching as that embodied in the ordinance and sions of the ordinance. In this connection, the the revitalizing of the existing rent-reduction suggestions of the MSUG on the reorganization program involve a major task of administration. of the Department for Agrarian Reform are of The success or failure of these programs will great value, and proper use should be made of depend upon the creation of a well-functioning them. The authority of the Department for administrative machine in Saigon, in the pro- Agrarian Reform is laid down in general terms vincial capitals, and in the villages. The ordi- in the ordinance, and it is the responsibility of nance recognizes the need for an administrative the department to develop the specific tasks. body, as evidenced by Titre III, Des Organes It is not the purpose of this memorandum to de la Reforme Agraire, Articles 25, 26, 27, and deal with them. Suffice it to say that the Depart- 28; but, for the time being, a land reform ad- ment for Agrarian Reform must initiate overall ministration barely exists in Saigon and is policies and translate them into operating func- virtually nonexistent at all other levels. It is yet tions in order to achieve a coordinated pro- to be created, and it must be created if the ordi- gran of land transfer and rent reduction within nance is to have any meaning. a certain time period. The first step in this direction is the ap- The reorganization of the department can- pointment of a secretary of state for agrarian not be achieved overnight, and the enactment of reform who can devote all his time to the or- the ordinance cannot be delayed until that has ganization of his department and to the admin- been realized. On the other hand, once the indi- Making the Pending Land Redistribution Program More Practicable 273 vidual responsible for the program has been Ideally, a land transfer program such as is now selected, his immediate and most profitable before you would be preceded by a complete order of business is to deal with the problems agricultural census. It is impossible to accom- mentioned below, whether the ordinance has plish this in Vietnam in less than a year, how- been enacted or not. Some are rather simple ever much it is needed. Therefore, I suggest an and others are complicated; but, taken together, alternative shortcut to securing the information they constitute the important groundwork of which will be needed. the agrarian reform. If the retention limit is set at 100 hectares, The implementation of a land distribution approximately 2,600 landlords will be affected. program will be a new experience for Vietnam. All these landlords should be required to regis- For this reason, it is well to utilize the knowl- ter those plots they wish to retain. At the same edge of those who implemented similar pro- time, landlords owning more than approxi- grams. I have in mind Japan and Formosa. In mately half the retention limit should also both countries and particularly in the latter, register, listing their total holdings. In all, only there are valuable administrative lessons to be some 6,000 landlords would be affected, the learned. Both countries, under different circum- majority of them owning less than 100 hectares. stances, using different financing schemes, but The tenants who would like to purchase their with quite similar administrative organizations, holdings and who think their landlord owns successfully achieved their goals. Vietnam need more than 100 hectares should register their not copy their methods but only adopt what is purchase claims. Where there is a conflict about useful and applicable. In both countries the the total amount of land a landlord claims and village land commissions were mainly responsi- a tenant says the landlord owns, the cadastral ble for the implementation of the program; service would make a survey. Later it would in the final analysis in Vietnam, too, the success survey all holdings affected by the transfer. of the program will depend upon the effort in By some device such as this, the government the villages. There is not much to be learned in of Vietnam can obtain relatively quickly a Japan about the financing of land purchases, fresh and fairly good idea about the size of the but a great deal of useful information can be landlords' holdings. gotten in Formosa on this very subject. I have A measure that has the highest priority is particular reference to the bond issue tech- an estimate of the financial cost of conducting niques. the affairs of the department and of the cost of In the light of these considerations, a small administering the land transfer and the rent group of Vietnamese specialists should visit reduction programs. The two are nor neces- both countries for a careful assessment of these sarily alike. The reform agencies in the pro- problems. This would result in saving time and vincial capitals, district and village offices will effort, and, most importantly, preventing mis- call for a far larger expenditure than the mainte- takes. nance of the department staff in Saigon. While Finally, the Department for Agrarian Re- the land transfer will be directed from Saigon, form should enlist the services of a few of the the implementation work will be done in the most experienced technicians who were largely field, outside of Saigon. Any attempt at budg- responsible for the success of the Formosan etary estimates will, of course, necessitate a program. I worked with them, and I am of the consideration of the total administrative scope opinion that they would contribute greatly to of the program. This in itself is an indispensable the success of the Vietnamese program. I cannot chore, even if the government had all the finan- speak for usom, but I believe that UsoM might cial resources at its disposal. Since this is not agree to furnish the means for the study-trips the case, the administrator of the reform and to both countries as well as the necessary finan- the government must have a fairly clear idea cial support to secure the services of the For- of the necessary outlays before the program is mosan specialists. in operation. This may call for changes in In Vietnam, unsettled conditions for many budgetary allocations within the government or years have prevented the gathering of ade- requests for aid from usom in the event the quate statistics concerning rural land ownership. government budget cannot meet the necessary 274 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 outlays. All of this is a significant part of the lected now; and, having done that, there is the land reform plan which must be given timely obvious need of determining in some detail the thought if the tasks ahead are to be treated council's responsibilities and of creating the with the seriousness they deserve. means of carrying them out. The ordinance re- Article 21 of the ordinance provides for an fers to other commissions which are to take initial cash payment to the landlords of at least care of a great variety of tasks directly related 10 percent of the land purchase price. It is not to the reform. The ordinance is not specific the business of the ordinance to state in detail about the character of the commissions. How- how this money is to be used, although the ordi- ever, since they are intended as the imple- nance implies its use as a means of orienting mentors of the reform, it is well to determine the large landowners toward industrial activi- at the earliest their precise nature, their compo- ties (article 1). This is a complicated question sition, whether they are to function as part of tied up with the future economic development the council or the Department for Agrarian of the country. It cannot be resolved in a hurry. Reform, and whether their functions will ex- It would be prudent, therefore, to begin the tend throughout the provinces. In short, as the examination of this problem now, before the commissions will be a part of the administra- application of the ordinance. It would be unfair tive machine, now is the time to decide how to the landlords to block their cash payments these parts fit into the whole. indefinitely because of the failure to devise a As already mentioned, the duties assigned practical plan for the utilization of that money. to the commissions in article 27 of the ordi- If, on the other hand, the study of this problem nance are related to the very essence of the reveals that the cash can have no particular reform. Their effectiveness would be the greater bearing on industrialization, then, naturally, it if they were clearly assigned to an administra- would be useful to know over what period the tive unit called "village commissions." Granting payments should be spread. The related ques- the importance of instructions received from tion is whether the reform is to be carried out Saigon or the provincial capital, the fact is that in one year, two years, or more, all the important decisions for the transfer of There are three reasons why these urgent land or rights to land will be made at the village questions demand answers: the problem of the level. This work involves detailed decisions in overall financing of the land transfer program, each individual case with respect to the seller, the need to minimize the opposition of the the buyer, the tenure status of the land to be landlords to the reform, and the possibility of purchased, the price, the date of transfer, and securing from the United States a land reform so on. An outsider couldn't possibly do it, at loan or gift in the amount of some $20 million. least one of the reasons being that many village The first two are self-evident and need no records have been destroyed by the Viet Minh. further elucidation. The third calls for a bit of Only the local people are in a position to know elaboration. Foreign aid is now subject to the the conditions of each individual and his rela- closest scrutiny in the United States. This is tion to the land. It is equally true that, even particularly true of the type of agrarian reform with the records in good shape, only the com- aid, which has never before been extended. The munity is in a position to decide for itself all $20 million belong in that category. Under the the vital questions bearing directly on the re- circumstances, even a convincing statement why form. Here lies the success of the reform and the money is needed will not suffice; of utmost of the rent reduction program. To make cer- importance is a convincing explanation of how tain of that, it is advisable to create effective the money will be used. commissions in all the villages affected by the Article 26 of the ordinance provides, among reform. They will be made up of tenants, land- other things, for a National Council for Agrar- lords, and owner cultivators. Mindful of the ian Reform. It is not too soon to put some purpose of the reform and of the crucial role content into this framework, rather than wait the commissions must play, the proportional until "five minutes to twelve." The chairman representation of each group is a subject for and membership of the council should be se- serious consideration. Above all, in this regard, Toward a More Effective U.S. Aid Program in Vietnam 275 the commissions must not be so nearly weighed at stake-nationally and internationally: na- with landlords as to render ineffective the suit- tionally, a strong link between the government able implementation of the reforms. and the people, made stronger by economic These are some of the principal points which stability inherent in the concept of private demand immediate attention if the contem- ownership of land and reasonable tenure terms; plated rural reforms are to become a reality. It internationally, another lesson that an agrarian is commonplace to say that even the best land reform can be achieved without enslaving the reform law cannot ensure the success of the re- peasantry. form. What is needed is an administrator with On the mainland of Southeast Asia, free vision, sympathy, energy, and ambition, backed Vietnam is the first country to dare a land re- by all the resources of the government, and distribution program for the benefit of the land- capable of creating an administrative organiza- less. Both the Communists and non-Communists tion which will indeed implement the reform will watch the outcome of this effort. It would law. While this ideal person may be hard to be idle to expect that its successful accomplish- find, the best available man should be appointed ment would cause the Communists to deviate without delay in order, first, to lay the ground- from the line they have taken; there is reason work discussed in this memorandum and then to hope, however, that for the rest of Southeast to proceed with the execution of the program. Asia this would carry the conviction that last- All this is said not in a spirit of criticism ing social improvements cannot be found at either of individuals or of what has been done the end of a Communist gun barrel; it would until now. I am motivated by one consideration demonstrate that, without recourse to violence only, and one only: the success of the land re- and bloodshed, in free Vietnam those who till form program which free Vietnam is about to the land own the land. launch. The reform must not fail; no effort must be The reform must not fail; there is too much spared to ensure its success. 31. Toward a More Effective U.S. Aid Program in Vietnam I have chosen the above title for this letter of November 15, 1956, to an old friend in the U.S. State Department directly concerned with the formulation of Vietnam policy at the department. While Ladejinsky wrote the letter explicitly for his friend's "background information" only, he obviously hoped that it would contribute to the strengthening of U.S. aid in Vietnam along the lines he advocated. Since I have already referred in the introduction to some of the views Ladejinsky expresses here, no further comment is needed. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your letter of but which the celebration of October 26 made the 17th. I have often thought of you in con- doubly clear: a political milestone is behind us, nection with the goings on here, but I have whereas the economic one is yet to be passed. been most reluctant to put pen to paper. This But first about the brighter side of the pic- is true even now, for issues involve people, even ture. Politically, Vietnam has done very well if not labeled individually, and the chore be- indeed. You are familiar with the general and comes rather unpleasant. However, I shall say the particular and I need not enlarge on them, something on a subject which is not new to you except to say that the country is unified, that 276 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 the government governs by day and by night, is assumed with equal conviction is that it must and that the people believe that the govern- be diluted with a strong dash of industrializa- ment is here to stay. My on-the-spot observa- tion that fits the country's needs. In a balanced tions lead me to these conclusions. The presi- agricultural and industrial economy lies Viet- dent is inclined to give all the credit to the nam's economic independence. Merely "keep- Lord and only of late has there been a greater ing the country going" is not enough. It does measure of awareness-even if not acknowl- not give rise to a higher standard of living, edged-that the Lord helps those who help create new sources of employment, expand put- themselves. So much so, indeed, that the con- chasing power nationally and internationally, fidence engendered by the political achieve- develop managerial and industrial skills, and so ments has had this result: outside advice and forth. Our aid must begin to lead in this di- friendly advice are not as readily accepted as rection. This is the principal part of the argu- in the past. The handling of the Chinese prob- ment. lem is a good case in point. Aside from the fact that the new political Diplomatically, particularly relations with structure can have meaning only if the govern- Southeast Asia, Vietnam is doing well. Cam- ment demonstrates by deed that one of its bodia is the exception. There is widespread principal concerns is the economic welfare of recognition that free Vietnam is nobody's pup- the people, there are the economic schemes of pet, that Diem is an Asian leader to be reck- the Communists in North Vietnam which are oned with, and that he earned the respect of taken here most seriously and are a source of other countries through a moral force w'hich grave concern to the government. There is no even his enemies do not deny him. The gov- attempt to underestimate the ability of the ernment of Vietnam for its part has finally Communists to create an economic showcase; recognized that isolationism with respect to nor is there any disposition to minimize the Southeast Asian countries is not a good'policy, political results that would attend it, on both that an active policy as a member of the South- sides of the border. These motivations are not east Asian community is much to be preferred, new, but they are worth repeating because they despite the neutralism of the greater part of have not been fully recognized on our side. that community. The relations with India are This is particularly true of the political aspects indeed good, and U Nu's visit is the first sig- of the aid. Hence, the Vietnamese restlessness nificant stop in establishing friendly diplomatic and dissatisfaction which clearly manifested relations with Burma. I have reason to be par- itself in recent months. ticularly pleased with this development. This The controversy through spring and summer by-product of my visit to Burma in July turned has had one good result: we recognize now that out to be much more important than the origi- economic development, as distinct from eco- nal purpose of the trip. nomic scatteration, is the course to follow. It is All of this is in contrast with the economic not a day too soon-for both Vietnamese and state of affairs. Improvements are likely to take Americans-to try to make this a reality. place in the months ahead; but, as of now and On the Vietnamese side, decisions are hard despite an aura of prosperity in Saigon, eco- to come by. This is partly because they are not nomically the country is as weak as a car. sure of themselves, partly because of the great The past six months or more have been lack of experienced personnel, partly because spent in much argument on the subject of the the administrative structure is such that au- country's future economic development. No- thority doesn't necessarily go with responsi- body here minimizes the role of American aid bility, and partly because nationalistic proclivi- in saving the country from economic chaos, but ties often take primacy over day-to-day realities. they believe that the continuation of this type There is also another important reason: The of aid (army, refugee assistance, and Nsu are Vietnamese I am talking about have no great excepted) would compel them to perpetual confidence in the ability of our technicians to dependence on American aid. The overwhelm- help develop and execute a well-rounded pro- ing agricultural character of the country is ac- grain. cepted as the basis of its economic future; what None of this is said publicly and absolutely Toward a More Effective U.S. Aid Program in Vietnam 277 nothing for foreign consumption. To illustrate program (in 1955 it had 330 projects and not my point: A group of Indian, Thai, and Bur- one bit of a program); or whether the eco- mese journalists were in Saigon, by invitation, nomics of the aid fit the political facts of life; in connection with the October 26 affair. While or whether, from our point of view, Vietnam here they were not only sharply critical of has some special role to play-all these and American aid in their respective countries on more are not apparently of great moment to all kinds of grounds but made an effort to the policynakers. Only very lately and under solicit some supporting views from the govern- the impact of widespread criticism at home and ment of Vietnam. In this they utterly failed. abroad leveled against our aid has ICA begun The government has taken the position that, to take notice that maybe there is something whatever the disagreements, they must not be amiss with this aid. aired in public. A good opportunity to set our aid on a new Within the family, however, it is an open course was last spring. At that time, a well- secret that, by and large, the Vietnamese tend staffed special mission, with prestige and au- to be critical of a good many of our technicians, thority, charged with the responsibility of ex- claiming, among other things, that the United amining and of prescribing for the future eco- States is not giving them the best it can offer nomic development of the country, would have and that they work in a world of their own, been what the doctor ordered. I regret that the often not related to the needs of Vietnam. Some idea died aborning. However, this is water go so far as to question our interest in the eco- over the dam. nomic development of Vietnam. All of this In the course of the past week or so the two has resulted in a marked reluctance to accept parties have been discussing a document known our advice. as the "Proposed 1957 Economic Development As in all such cases, the charges are greatly Program," involving an American contribution exaggerated. Much of it is on the familiar of $85 million and a Vietnamese input of $20 theme of the rich uncle, the "colonialist"' man- million. I don't believe there will be much ner in which the Americans live, the extreme disagreement on the basic items, but there are a "isolationism" of the Americans-that is to say, number of stiff hurdles to overcome before the the pronounced tendency not to mix with the implementation begins. Vietnamese. Sad to report, but in this respect The heart of the document lies in the cate- in the eyes of the worldly Vietnamese, the gory called "new priority projects," made up French cut a better figure. The charge goes of a number of new industrial and agricultural deeper than that. The mission is a big and undertakings. So far, the document merely growing organization, professionally speaking. says: "textile mill-$2.5 million," or "sugar They want outstanding men with proven knowl- refinery-$3 million." All this must be de- edge and prestige in a field of activity, and so veloped and refined, which in turn calls for forth. The few Vietnamese with good train- much talent and understanding on both sides. ing and the very, very few Vietnamese econo- Problem number two is that the government mists look down their noses upon our crop. must make a number of decisions as part of a This explains why the same Vietnamese are development program. anxious to find highly qualified specialists who Will such decisions be made and followed would work directly for the Vietnamese gov- by action? With October 26 behind us, there ernment. is reason to believe that on the Vietnamese side ICA/Washington is considerably at fault in most of the effort will be concentrated on eco- respect to these developments. It is inordinately nomic matters. The political preoccupation ex- preoccupied, so it appears from a distance, with cuses, justifiable until recently, are likely to slots to fill, with the mechanics of a mission's be kept in abeyance; but it is not going to be work, and with keeping the books in order. One easy. The decisions relate to the role of the cannot gainsay the importance of these chores; government in economic development; the yet there are other important problems, which, place of French and "pure" foreign capital and until recently, failed to receive their due. how to attract it; tax and budgetary reform; Whether the mission has the right kind of a foreign and domestic trade controls; the possi- 278 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 ble devaluation of the currency; the form of the case, a statement by a visiting viP from ICA economic austerity; and, of course, the very that he saw no difference between Vietnam and important administrative questions relating to any other aid-receiving country on the main- implementation of the reforms. Willy-nilly and land of Southeast Asia is very disconcerting. on a piecemeal basis, conditions-if nothing The fact is that some countries are "more else-may compel the government to deal with equal," or rather more deserving, than others. them. But the going will be rough because for But if he expressed the prevailing attitude in reasons already cited the economic part of the Washington correctly, I can see the why of the job is vastly more complicated than the political "business as usual" kind of operation, the pride one. However, I am not without hope that with in our doing things for "them," and the clinch- a good deal of money available for a new pro- ing argument that Vietnam is getting more gram, procrastination will have to give way money than any other country-as if this in and answers will have to be given to the trouble- itself were an achievement. I don't believe this some problem of the country's economic de- is cricket; moreover, it beclouds the real issue: velopment. in the technical economic assistance field it is On our side, in addition to the money that time that we show a great deal for the money we do have, we shall need something more to we spend. It ill becomes us to point the finger do better than we have done in the past. We of accusation solely against the Vietnamese. We shall need a few outstandingly capable people are senior partners in the enterprise; until just to cope with a real economic development pro- now the character of our technical economic gram. We shall have to become more politically aid rested mainly with us. minded in order to appreciate the role of Viet- And so I hope that, now that we are about nam in this part of the world and why we must to turn a new page in what might prove to be help bring about visible, not to say spectacular, a worthwhile effort, we shall leave behind the achievements, and quickly. Part of our political parochial mentality that governs so much of awareness must come from the realization that our economic work. We are here in part be- the waves of neutralism wash the very borders cause we have the so-called "know-how." Then of Vietnam. The threat of Communism from let us display it with vision and daring. It the north and the weakening of the opposition does little good under any circumstances to to Communism among the neutralists west of keep on saying with an air of superiority that Vietnam place Vietnam in the position of being "they" are so ignorant that they cannot prepare almost the only St. George fighting the dragon an economic plan of their own; this is par- on the mainland of Southeast Asia. No special ticularly regrettable because there are few rewards are asked for it, but it is strongly felt American specialists in Saigon capable of tack- that a meaningful and rapid economic buildup ling a chore of this type and with the kind of of Vietnam-tip to and including the sacrifice an economic political thinking that such a plan of the monumental red tape that slows down must entail. We have never made such an effort, every action-is in the interest of the United even on a piecemeal basis. Right now and for States as well as in the interest of Vietnam. a year or two to come, we and they need a Fourteen months spent negotiating a con- truly first-rate economist of acknowledged tract with a private firm to make a survey of standing to help make some of the decisions this or that is not the way to advance our cause mentioned earlier. I would dispense with a here. It would seem that occasionally we treat good many to make room for one such man. an occupied country with greater consideration He is indispensable, for there is an urgent need than a proven ally. I remember that, when in to put an end to the dangerously oversimplified the early days of Japanese occupation roads or kind of layman's economic thinking which pre- airfields had to be built, the Corps of Engi- vails here. I am certain that the idea would be neers moved in and did the job. For all prac- frowned upon in certain circles, but it is worth tical purposes, Vietnam is in a state of war, the a most earnest try. outcome of which depends on how well "they" A touch of humility, recognition of our and "we" perform before the faucet is turned shortcomings, ability not only to teach but also on again by our "friends" up north. Such being to learn from the recipients, stepping one down Agrarian Revolution in Asia 279 to get acquainted with the Vietnamese, less secret of them while with usoM. Now, as then, preoccupation with housekeeping matters and the only axe I have to grind is that of our more concentration on "what we are here for," common cause here. fewer but better people-all these and more Just a word about myself. I am well. Of should advance our cause measurably. I am frustrations there is no end, but the stakes are not overly optimistic that the Vietnamese will formidable and the purely personal ups and overnight acquire the "proper" attitudes and downs are of no great moment. I am on good I am a bit skeptical that we can, after years of terms with both sides. And, of course, I like, habit forming, effect a similar and speedy re- admire, and respect my chief. He is very human newal of strength. Nevertheless, new attitudes and as a nonsinner he understands the ways of must come to the fore. I have no detailed pre- the sinners. scription for this sort of thing; all I can say In late March I am scheduled to go to Santi- is that events cannot be denied their due, for ago to attend an International Catholic Rural their logic cannot be violated. In addition, one Life Congress for Latin America. Essentially, must assume, of course, that men of good will the congress is built around the theme of "man on both sides will help the process along. and land" in Asia, and I am supposedly the man On October 27 and in the midst of continu- to tell something of the story. I am happy to ing festivities, I had the privilege of a session oblige Monsignor Ligutti, who is the prime with my chief. After a review of the political mover of the rural reform wing of the church. significance of the events just behind us, I ex- Also, this will be my first trip to Latin America; pressed the hope that a year from now Vietnam under the circumstances I don't protest too would celebrate an economic milestone. He much the spending of a mint of money to give echoed this wish. The goal is clear, and we are me a free trip around the world. I don't believe all agreed upon it. We must make this good and I shall visit the States on my way back. I am with the very best means at our disposal. fairly busy here and I am not eager for a long I am afraid I have written a bit disturbingly, vacation. However, time will show. but I assure you there is nothing personal about P.S. The content of this letter is only for it. I have held to these views and made no your background information. 32. Agrarian Revolution in Asia Early in 1957 Ladejinsky attended by invitation the Fourth International Catholic Congress on Rural Life, held in Santiago on April 1-6. It was his first visit to Latin America. Ladejinsky's chief contribution to the conference was a statement on the "Agrarian Reform in Japan," not presented here because there is another, and better, on that topic. But he also made a very short, pithy statement to the conference on the agrarian revolution in Asia which merits inclusion, if only because Ladejinsky concentrates, within the compass of four paragraphs, a number of his favorite phrases borrowed from some of his other papers to hammer home his "or else" thesis. IN AGRARIAN ASIA, land reform is no more an non-Asian, non-Communist countries. The first academic issue; and the experience of Japan two have shown that the tiller can get the land and Taiwan on the one hand and that of Com- he cultivates with no recourse to bloodshed and munist China on the other may well serve to chaos. Above all, they have demonstrated that identify the best interests of other Asian and a peasant can achieve his goal as a free and 280 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 independent producer. He has escaped the the landlords are essentially an affirmation of serfdom which Communist Russia and China a positive goal of a free people. Failing these have imposed upon their peasants at the point affirmations, the alternatives are the agrarian of a bayonet. revolutions of Communist Russia and Commu- It must be underscored, however, that the nist China. achievement rests on the will and resolution of There is ample proof that sooner or later the a government in power to meet the land hunger dispossessed will take the law into their own of the landless, on the appreciation of the po- hands, to the utter destruction of the govern- litical consequences of a land tenure system ments and classes who failed to grant them where poverty and social degradation are its peacefully what they otherwise try to acquire hallmark, on the ability to force upon the land- through violence. The rise of Communist Russia lord class the concessions which make reform and China has demonstrated that in the pre- possible. dominantly agrarian countries a government The last point is crucial. In the part of the must have peasant support; failing that it truly world I come from, landlords, big or small, are has no support at all. It has demonstrated that not social reformers. To them, the very words the foundations of the social structure stand or 'reform," "change," and "concession" partake fall in the countryside and that the peasant and of the devil. In their blind insistence on the his interests and aspirations must be placed "in status quo, in Russia and in China they were the center of the piece." Japan and Taiwan are the creators of a revolutionary situation and examples of why and how the peasant was the unwitting and unwilling allies of Coinmu- placed there and how he and the country bene- nism. In the end, they dug their own graves fited from the act. Communist China is a lesson and those of their own governments. For these and a warning of the shape of things to come reasons and in the context of the revolutionary when the economic and social aspirations of the ferment sweeping the world these many years, peasant are sacrificed for the sake of an outdated the concessions imposed by a government upon status quo. 33. Agrarian Revolution in Japan By about the middle of 1959, as already noted, with the bulk of his work on the land transfer program in Vietnam behind him and his work in that country substantially accomplished, Ladejinsky entered a period of reflection and backward assessment. This article, a decade or more after the fact, is his final review and evaluation of the Japanese land reform. One can sense his quiet pride as he compares it with the Soviet and the Chinese agrarian revolutions. This article is reprinted by permisssion from Foreign Affairs, October 1959. Copyright 1959 by Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. SINCE THE END OF THE Second World War, Not all of the Asian countries placed the peas- "agrarian reform," or "land to the landless," ant, as Nehru put it, "in the center of the has been a trenchant slogan in Asia. Variously piece"; but a movement to improve the peas- understood and interpreted, it has come to ant's lot is under way in many Asian countries. epitomize much of the problem and promise of That movement had its inception neither in Asia. The Communists have made their suc- Communist Russia nor in Communist China. cessful bid for power by claiming that they- The general pattern was set and the stimulus and only they-were the reformers. But post- was given by arch-conservative Japan before the war free Asia did not neglect the land issue. Chinese Communists promoted their brand of Agrarian Revolution in ]apan 281 agrarianism. In late 1946 Japan promulgated of the Communist sails was as tempting as it and within three years implemented a program was imperative. which indeed gave the land to the landless. A It was out of recognition of these factors decade later it stands as a great landmark in that General MacArthur, in his now-famous the history of Japan. The unprecedented renais- land reform directive of December 15, 1945, sance of present-day rural Japan demonstrates ordered the Japanese government "to take that only free people and widely distributed measures to insure that those who till the soil private ownership of land can make the best of Japan shall have a more equal opportunity use of the productive forces of the village. By to enjoy the fruits of their labor." The legal the same token, it demonstrates that the land provisions into which this directive was em- problem can be dealt with resolutely without bodied in October 1946 called for (a) the the Communist gospel and free of the tragic compulsory sale at fixed government prices of upheavals unleashed by the Soviet and Chinese all the land of the absentee landlords, (b) the agrarian revolutions. compulsory sale of all the land of the resident landlords save for the permissible retention of 2.5 acres-the average size of a Japanese farm, (c) cash rentals and security tenure for those remaining on the land as tenants. These were Japanese society before the reform was not the principal measures,' conceived with an eye nearly so monolithic as painted by the legend- for the widespread ownership of land among makers of Japan. The village with its overex- the tenants. ploited, insecure, rack-rented tenantry was the The MacArthur directive went beyond the chink in its armor. The landlords had the redistribution of land. It was not an end in it- money, the leisure, the culture, and the power self but rather a means "to remove economic which they did not share with others. The obstacles to the revival and strengthening of Japanese farmers, on the other hand, were democratic tendencies, establish respect for allegedly the bearers of the nation's traditional the dignity of man, and destroy the economic verities, serving the interests of a feudal and bondage which has enslaved the Japanese industrial Japan with equal self-denial. The farmer to centuries of feudal oppression." The realities were much grimmer than the senti- very sweep of the pronouncement against the mentalization of the farmer deep in the muck background of a seemingly changeless agrarian of the rice fields. The majority of the tenants society caused many to doubt its ultimate effec- and part tenants, comprising 70 percent of the tiveness. Nevertheless, when in 1947 the farm- farm families and cultivating more than half ers of 11,000 villages of Japan went to the cof the land, had little stake in that society. polls to elect representatives to administer the They met the exactions of their many masters land reform program, the first step was taken with the produce from fragments of overworked toward a fundamental change in rural Japan. land not large enough or rich enough to sup- Similar revolutions in Russia and in China port their families. have caused heads to roll and darkened the sky This state of affairs did not go unnoticed in with the smoke of burning nobleinens' nests. Japan. Before the Second World War there was The traveler passing through Japan's country- a body of public opinion, including the mili- side in the years 1947-1949 would never have tary, which recognized that the foundation of known that a basic economic and social change Japan, rural Japan, needed shoring up for the was being attempted. It is in those years that sake of the farmers and the nation as a whole. the government succeeded in buying and re- And much of this was recognized also by the selling 5,800,000 acres of land. Whereas before American occupation. There was another mo- the reform 54 percent of the cultivated land was tive: the danger of agrarian unrest as a source of Communist power and the belief that post- war rural Japan-as Japan in general-pre- 1. William M. Gilmartin and W. I. Ladejinsky, sented a fertile field for Communist penetra- "The Promise of Agrarian Reform in Japan," Foreign tion. The idea of taking the political wind out Affairs (January 1948). 282 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 owner operated, after the reform 92 percent of reform village posters: "May our agricultural the land was owned by the farmers of Japan. To production multiply the size of our holdings." a Japanese farmer "a farmer without land is like Economic and psychological factors have a man without a soul"; three years after the be- combined to bring this about. It is difficult to ginning of the implementation approximately measure the pride of ownership and the 3 million farmers acquired "souls." Individual heightened sense of social position as a source ownership of land rather than tenancy became of greater initiative to improve and accumulate, the hallmark of rural Japan. but their effectiveness cannot be gainsaid. Even A decade has gone by since Japan became the new folksongs reflect it: a typical country of individual small holders. Judging by the solid core of landowning farm- The same paddy fields, but now my own; ers, the reform has been a success. But one may Heavy is the crop and light is my heart; rightly ask: What lies behind the bare statistical Bright shines the sun on my own piece of land! bones of so many landlord acres sold to so many farmers? Has widespread, individual ownership The immediate result of the transfer of of land been conducive to a rise in agricultural ownership was the sharp increase in the ac- production and peasant welfare? Have the new cumulation of rural capital. Just as the postwar owners held on to their windfall, or have they inflation relieved the farmers of the burden of bartered it away as so many had predicted? heavy indebtedness, in the same manner they Has it loosened the domination of the old vil- were relieved of land purchase obligations to lage oligarchy and has it brought to the fore a a considerable degree by paying for them in in- leadership more in tune with the new condi- flated currency. This, followed by the elimina- tions? Has the role of the village in local and tion of the former high rentals (which formerly national politics undergone any change, or has constituted nearly half of his farming costs) the "boss" system of delivering the farm vote together with good crops and good farm prices, en bloc and at will remained unchanged? Has enabled the farmers to invest in the improve- the undisguised favoritism of industry versus ment of their land and modernization of their agriculture given place to a more equitable equipment. In 1957 such investments were treatment of the country's basic economy? In roughly four times those before the war. short, has the shift in ownership stopped short The zeal to modernize and to improve, of breaking the notoriously hard cake of custom favored by good weather conditions, has re- of rural Japan, or has it come close to giving sulted in higher production. By 1958 it was 20 meaning to the lofty aspirations of the Mac- percent above prewar. Considering that rice Arthur directive? The answers to these crucial output per unit of land was very high even questions shed much light on what the land before the war, the national increase of 10 per- transfer was really about and on the character cent attained in recent years from almost the of the agrarian revolution it set in motion. same acreage is particularly significant. The de- sire to "expand" the size of the holdings has led, for the first time, to a fuller appreciation III of animal husbandry as a source of income. An interested observer cannot but be struck Encouraged by recent land improvement ex- with the fever for improvement that has swept perience and determined to reclaim approxi- rural Japan with the implementation of the re- mately 1,500,000 acres of marginal undeveloped form. It would appear that all of the land was land, the Japanese government in 1957 launched in need of face lifting. The unavoidable impres- a very ambitious five-year plan. If successful, sion is that the farmers have declared war on farm income will increase by 25 percent. Wheat the severe limitations imposed by the one- to and rice production will be augmented by 12 two-acre holdings, trying to eliminate wide- and 8 percent, respectively; output of dairy spread fear among them that "if we stand still products more than doubled; roughly the same we shall be swept away." This aspect of the for sugar; and raw silk production, with an agrarian revolution is well expressed in post- eye to increased silk exports, will be augmented Agrarian Revolution in Japan 283 by 50 percent. Whatever the actual attainments, IV the chain reaction commencing with the land Friend and foe of the land reform are redistribution is still on, and its ultimate aim red an the ladmefr are ishge.rdcinadahge tnado agreed that the farmers are better off now than is higher production and a higher standard of ever before. Although the per capita farm in- living. come is lower than for the rest of gainfully But the outstanding feature of the village employed Japanese, in 1956 average farm dis- after the reform is the upsurge of farm mecha- posable income was 50 percent larger than nization and the emphasis on labor productivity before the war. Between 1950 and 1957 farm as well as land productivity. For the first time and nonfarm income per household jumped in the modern history of Japanese agriculture, from an equivalent of $587 to $1,005. Farmers mechanization has extended into practices have been spending twice as much as they did which an inexhaustible labor supply could do before the war on productive and consumer as well. A tractor in a Japanese rice field was goods, but the balance has been in their favor. unheard of until after the Second World War. The Japanese village became an important But immediately after the reform, in 1949, market for Japan's industrial output, and not there were 10,000 small, garden-type tractors only of the new and expanding farm equipment in use; a decade later there were nearly 150,000 industry. The village elders with memories of of them. While the problem of using machines strain and stress may shrug their shoulders at for transplanting young rice shoots and for har- the "indecent extravagance," but many a farmer vesting has not been resolved yet, the Japanese doesn't deny himself a motorcycle, tiled kitchen label recent attainments as "epoch making" and and running water, a refrigerator and washing "revolutionary." A comparison of the number machine, sometimes a television set, and, not of machines purchased by farmers between least, putting aside some money for a son's or 1947 and 1957 is dramatically illustrated by a daughter's college education. It is part of the few figures. During this decade electric motors new mental outlook, which may well represent increased almost fivefold; gasoline motors, a more fundamental change in Japanese society than the more readily discernible surface sevenfold; tractors, fifteenfold; power-sprayers changes in conventions of everyday life. nearly twentyfold; power-threshing machines, One of the significant landmarks of the fivefold; and rice-hulling machines nearly four- post-reform Japan is the recognition by the fold. government that the long-established practice It might seem paradoxical that the villages of discriminating against agriculture in favor with surplus labor should be concerned with of industry is no longer tenable. The farmers labor-saving devices. Part of the explanation can no longer be taken for granted with im- lies in the availability of the means to buy the punity; the politicians know that the farmers equipment and in the evidence that the release can be bearers of political gifts. This aware- of the farmer from manual labor drudgery in ness of their ability to influence government no way inhibits higher yields. Given these two actions was pithily expressed by a farmer: "We factors, the troublesome problem of a rising support those who support us." surplus of farm labor is mitigated somewhat The post-reform policies of the government in the face of improved economic conditions, to assist the farmers are motivated by still other particularly against the background of the considerations. The national interest has some- changes in the peasant's outlook. The reform thing to do with it, and so has the changing has stimulated the discontent with the narrow temper of public opinion as a whole. This boundaries of the old way of working and temper has been mainly emotional and "touchy," living. Farmers also wish to share in the prog- idealistic, and with a strong tinge of welfare ress and comforts caused by the tremendous state notions. Cautious, practical, and calcu- expansion of Japan's industry in the past decade. lating Japanese rugimes have had to take notice For this reason, the rapid mechanization of of it. The idea that only industry and commerce agriculture is a phenomenon far greater than are entitled to official nursing has gone out of its technical aspects imply. fashion. Hence the spectacle of borrowing 284 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 money from the World Bank to be used, at the same passionate devotion to education, the least in part, for agricultural development; huge same demonstrated effort for improvement, and government investments for land reclamation, the same evidence of mental horizons which which in recent years averaged more than three are not limited by the village vistas of Kago- times those of prewar years; the creation of the shima. Agricultural, Forestry, and Fisheries Finance The yearnings assume a variety of mani- Corporation for long-term improvement loans; festations. A half dozen miles from Kagoshima a revision of the tax structure more in con- city one comes across an anthropologist's treat: sonance with farm interests; and the official rice a village of Samurai descendants. There are price policy Vhich guarantees the farner a none outside of the prefecture, and this is one profit for his crop. of the very few in Kagoshima. The general ap- This is, indeed, a departure from all previous pearance of the settlement with its straight official attitudes toward the farmers; from the lanes upon which the two-sworded men once Tokugawa age, when, in the felicitous phrase practiced archery from fast-moving horses, the of Sir George Sansom, "statesmen thought age-tinted stone walls which give the impres- highly of agriculture, but not of the agricul- sion of surrounding the village and yet dividing turist"; from the agricultural settlement dur- it into neat compounds, the design of the gates ing the early Meiji era, which while abolishing and the layout of the living quarters so as to some features of feudalism gave rise to whole- iive time to prepare for an Unwelcome intrUder sale peasant expropriation; and from the less -all these rake one back a century or centuries. blatant but none the less "beast of burden" Even the accompanying Japanese friend cannot treatment of more recent times. help but remark on this surviving vestige of a feudal society. But in reality it is only a museum piece. Far down the end of the same lane in a V large, new school auditorium, young Japanese The change in the attitude of both govern- carry on as if they were ages removed from the ment and farmers and the successful attempts Samurai ancestors and what they represented. to put the land in the service of greater ex- More than a thousand of them watch goggle- pectations are telling commentaries on the dire eyed as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the supporting predictions of a decade ago. The anti-reform cast of dancers, aged 10 to 12, perform The spokesman argued that land ownership would Nutcracker in classical ballet costume. Not be a poor exchange for the economic security every village has its "corps de ballet," but the offered by the landlord. Worse, they foresaw a one reared in the so-called citadel of feudalism serious economic and cultural deterioration provides its own commentary on the "change- throughout rural Japan if landlords were re- less" Japan on the one hand and the people's moved and tenants became small owners, all hopes on the other. allegedly equally poor and with no interest in Mass primary education is in the Meiji tra- the general welfare of the community. In Japan, dition, but the urge to expand it has never been a decade without landlord domination has not greater than in post-reform Japan. No one is borne them out either in the economic or in the interested in "economizing" on it, and the ques- cultural field. tion of "affording" does not enter into the The most vivid impression of a trip in any building of a multi-million yen school. The part of rural Japan is the quest for education. rise of the standard of living, the consciousness The first thing that strikes the traveler is the of the new position of the farmer, and the extensiveness of the school facilities, the en- generous governmental subsidies to education largement of the old schools, and the building have all had much to do with the education of new ones that would do honor to any metro- rush. But there is another explanation which politan area of Japan. Village appropriations for reveals the darker side of the Japanese village, education range from 35 to 40 percent of the whether before or after reform. This relates to total budget. In this respect "feudal" Kago- the second and third sons, who do not in effect shima prefecture does not differ from the highly inherit the land, despite the inheritance pro- literate and sophisticated Nagano prefecture: visions of the new constitution, and must shift Agrarian Revolution in Japan 285 for themselves, looking for opportunities in village offices, and school boards. The former urban Japan. landlords have much to say about the absence A village mayor made this problem clear to of the customary homage the tenants used to the writer: bear them, feeling somewhat bewildered by the emergence of a new leadership and the need to My prefecture has neither raw materials nor deal with it on equal footing. finished products to export. All we can ex- It would be a mistake, however, to assume port is human beings. In the past we ex- that the new leadership has completely dis- ported them to China, Korea, the United placed the old one or that it will soon do so. States, and above all, to the industrial and Tradition still counts for much, and resident commercial centers of Japan. Myself, I was landlords with two or three acres leased to the an exportee to Manchuria. The time has remaining tenants, and the relatively small passed when we can continue this process number of ex-landlords with timber holdings, with the new generations. We can only try continue to exercise influence. What is taking to export them to other parts of Japan and place is the sharing of power between the two. there they are bound to meet severe competi- This is a new and welcome development. tion. The very least we can do for our sur- Japan's agriculture after the reform still is a plus men is to provide them with the best marginal economy with acre and half-acre education obtainable. Once educated, they farmers. It needs all the available skills and so- will not remain in the village; they will have cial peace and stability to deal with the ever- to go to the cities and let the cities take care present problem of six million farmers on 15 of them. We will have discharged our obli- to 16 million acres of land. gations towards them, and we will have done In his classic work, "Japan's Emergence as our duty to the cities by giving them the a Modern State,"2 Herbert Norman speaks of best export goods the village can furnish. If "The Janus head of the Japanese peasant"-he they remain with us, uneducated and with no can be alternately conservative or radical. There future, there will be no end to our misery. is ample evidence to justify this view; and yet, This is a national and a rural problem and ever since modern Japan put the ballot to use, the farmers try to meet it in their own way. the peasant vote has been invariably conserva- However, the schools are not only for the sec- tive. The vote brokers, the gentry, the local ond and third sons. As in everything else, the political bosses, the tweedledum-tweedledee landlords have been the intellectual leaders of type of political parties, and the conservative the village, but the cultural tradition to which side of Janus' head-all these contrived to that the landlords lay special claims shows no signs end. Nevertheless, the old pattern has under- of drying up in the post-reform village. gone a change, part of it being the rise of the powerful socialist party. Elections in the past decade demonstrate that the peasants still vote VI the conservative tickets, but they also vote for Everything about the reform pointed to an Socialists and independents. Local politicians alteration in the social structure of the Japanese are still in business, but they are in a quandary; village. Begun with the Meiji restoration upon the vote can be, and often is, divided in too the elimination from the village of the feudal many ways to suit their customary want. lord and the warrior-retainer, it was virtually A Japanese writer refers to the reform as completed with the reform when the village the event that "injected the breath of democracy became mostly owner farmer. One need not be among the farmers." If this is the case, one of an economic determinist to note that with the its effects is that political labels have lost a good transfer of the land to the tenants at nominal deal of their pull and that the farmers vote their prices the landlords lost their affluence and individual preference. They pick and choose, with it a good deal of their influence. Now, new and old owner cultivators are found in positions of responsibility as members of agri- 2. International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific cultural commissions, farm cooperative boards, Relations (New York, 1940). 286 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 and the economic interest is the motivation. lease to others, which would create new tenan- Aside from the candidate's own proven concern cies. The sales are made chiefly by part-time, with farm conditions, the record of his party's often postwar farmers whose major source of agricultural policies is equally decisive. What- income does not come from agriculture and ever action a government in power may choose who became possessors of a minute holding to take with respect to fertilizer prices, the price following the reform. The elimination of such of rice, scope of land improvement work, and holdings, which are undersized even in Japanese short- or long-term credit funds will vitally terms, is a healthy development, ending as it affect the distribution of the vote. Clearly, "we does in somewhat larger, more efficient farms. support those who support us" has a modern In general, whatever the reasons leading to the democratic ring. purchase and sale and whoever the participants There is only one group for which the Japa- in the transactions may be, there have been nese farmers do not vote-the Communists. hardly any cases of land accumulation reaching They are among the authentic losers of the the permissible ceiling of 7.5 acres, let alone agrarian revolution. Whether the tenantry of exceeding it. Japan would have flocked to the Communists' It is not surprising that they hold on to the colors if the country's fundamental farm issue land; everything in the long agrarian history of had not been met cannot be answered with Japan underlines the quest for it. The monu- certainty. The radicalism of the peasant might ments erected to enshrine the agrarian reform have asserted itself; but, having blindly op- that made it possible and the multivolume his- posed the reform because the Soviets pro- tories published in every prefecture of Japan to nounced the "MacArthur reform" as nothing preserve the memory of the quiet and yet stir- more than a plot "to sell the farmers down the ring days when "land to the landless" was being river," Communist political strength in an put into effect are the more dramatic expres- ocean of small proprietors caine to an inevitable sions of the peasant's deep-rooted attachment end. to the land. This is an important answer to the most crucial of questions: Will the reform last? Important, too, is the fact that landlords do not claim the return of the land, although their VII demands upon the government for "reasonable" In the final analysis, the basis of all the compensation persist. They cannot regain the changes is the stake in the land shared by virtu- land; the political climate favors the preserva- ally all the farmers. Whether these changes are tion of the reform. While many a reform sustained depends upon the retention of the measure enacted tinder the occupation has land by the owners. One of the most wide- since been revised or legislated out of existence, spread predictions by the critics of the reform the agrarian reform is a conspicuous exception. was that most of the peasants who received the When former Prime Minister Yoshida, no land land so easily would just as easily dispose of it, reformer, points with pride to the fact that the setting in motion the old familiar process of enabling legislation was passed during his first accumulation of land in relatively few hands postwar cabinet, he speaks for all politically and the pauperization of many others. Official conservative governments of Japan who ap- land prices were decontrolled in 1950, and they preciate the political capital they enjoy in the have increased fifty to a hundredfold since then; countryside. The credit claimed by conservatives but, so far, the predictions fall far short of ful- is painfully annoying to the Socialists, one of fillment. whose leaders, a former minister of agriculture, Land is being bought and sold under the Mr. Hiroo Wada, is the real architect of the supervision of local agricultural commissions, revolution. From the point of view of how last- but the rate of such sales at any given year has ing it will be, this is a happy augury. So long been less than one percent of the total, or one- as diametrically opposed political creeds vie third to one-fourth of the prewar sales. There with each other for the honor of having has been a considerable change in the content fathered the land transfer program, it is politi- of the transactions. No land can be bought for cally safe. Agrarian Revolution in Japan 287 VIII and give to those who are able to pay; and This record of the single most important give, without price, to those who are not change in postwar Japan would not be con- With variations, and in a different setting, plete without some consideration of the role of this is roughly what has taken place in Japan, the United States. The Japanese and foreign and this is where the American occupation has literature are replete with references to the left its mark on the face of Japan. The mere "occupation land reform." The less learned daring to come to grips with the fundamentals farmers are more discerning. Fearful lest a of rural Japan carried conviction to the farmers visitor's remark carried the implication that of the American concern for their welfare. In its Mr. Yoshida had fathered the reform, a farmer effects upon Japan and against the background took it upon himself to set the record straight of the general malaise which still finds large as he saw it: "No," said he, "not Mr. Yoshida, parts of the agrarian world restless and discon- but Mr. Hiroo Wada and General MacArthur." tented, the United States acted with farsighted To the present writer, a participant in and close statesmanship. The Nestors of Japan have taken observer of the reform, this seemingly strange note of it. partnership of a left-wing socialist and an American five-star general, and in the order cited, comes closest to defining the role of the IX occupation in helping bring about Japan's agrar- ian revolution. A decade after the farmers became land pro- Contrary to a widespread view, the land re- prierors, the agrarian revolution in Japan stands form program was not American made, pack- out in sharp contrast to those of Communist aged, and delivered in Japan. The idea was as Russia and China-in one, productive forces indigenous as the conditions which impelled it, reaching out for new horizons; in the other, as the numerous prewar (albeit unsuccessful) never-ending struggle to subdue the peasant efforts bear testimony. And yet, the occupation into an acceptance of an arrangement which de- played a crucial role in overcoming the re- nies him his lifelong ambition. In Russia as in luctance of the Japanese government, in speed- China, the old regimes were buried under the ing up the process, in the active concern with peasants' longing for the landlords' acres. Both certain phases of the legislation, and in the Communist regines have ridden to power by steadfast support of all reform-minded Japanese. "cornering," as Marx put it, "the peasant chorus The entire character of the occupation was without which the proletarian battle cry will a singular demonstration of a conqueror bind- degenerate into just another swan song." But ing the wounds of the conquered. What was having cornered them, and firmly in the saddle, true of the whole was particularly true of the the Communists took away the land, herded the attempt to help set rural Japan free. The occu- peasants into collectives and communes, and pation would not have incurred the displeasure wrote "finis" to the short-lived but exhilarating of American or Japanese public opinion if it experience of freeholding. had elected to stand aloof from this issue. In- The forced collectivization begun in 1929- stead, it had chosen to champion the proposi- 30 was Soviet Russia's second revolution and tion that those who work the land should own ushered in a social upheaval which nearly dis- it, harking back, even if unconsciously, to Sen- emboweled the Soviet Union in the process. ator Thomas Hart Benton of Andrew Jackson's The opposition was drowned in blood or day, who had this to say: starved to death, but even the "victor" was nearly overcome by its fearfulness. Collectiviza- The freeholder . . . is a natural supporter of tion and communization of agriculture in China a free government; and it should be the had no such immediate disruptive results, but policy of republics to multiply their free- it is undeniably true that this is also China's holders, as it is the policy of monarchies to excruciatingly difficult and uncompleted second multiply tenants. We are a republic, and we revolution, upon the outcome of which the wish to continue so; then multiply the class future of the regime depends. of freeholders; sell for a reasonable price, In the light of this, Japan's experience shows 288 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 that, given the will, a conservative government ther and increase the number of farms as the can become an authentic "agrarian reformer," sons and grandsons take over. and with no recourse to blood and thunder. A The somber fact is that, while in the United peasant can attain his goal as a free and inde- States between 1920 and 1957 the number of pendent producer. When a government in farm units was reduced by 22 percent and the power has the resolution to meet the land working farm population by nearly 40 percent, hunger of the landless, it has the political sup- in Japan during the same period the comparable port of the peasantry. If in seizing power the categories have both increased by 10 percent, Communists have performed any service at all, despite the country's striking industrial upsurge. it is in proving that in the predominantly agrar- The current prosperity of Japanese agriculture ian countries a government must have peasant cannot hide these harsh realities. Japan's non- support; failing that, it has no support at all. agricultural economy has served as a safety It is the irony and bedevilment of Commu- valve by providing the farmers with approxi- nism in the countryside that it threw away that mately 40 percent of their income, If there support and substituted in its place a reign is, therefore, any lasting answer for Japan's which only brute force can maintain. The Japa- 37 million agrarians, it must be sought outside nese agrarian revolution, on the other hand, has of agriculture in expanding industrialization not perverted the idea of land to the landless and its capacity to absorb rural unemployed and has pointed the way for agrarian, non- and underemployed. Communist Asia as to how to satisfy the aspira- To note this is not to minimize the great tions of the peasants without destroying in the ameliorative effects of the reform on the farm- process much else a nation lives by. That Korea, ers of Japan and on the country as a whole. The Taiwan, free Vietnam, Burma, India-to a de- countryside is at peace. The farmers own the gree-and more recently Pakistan have already land; they are unencumbered by debts, and acted upon the lessons taught by the two types they are a political and social force to be reck- of revolution is a welcome promise of the shape oned with. Many a bent back has been straight- of things to come. But if in the process of ened, and the dignity of individual life and Communist imperialism some of them are over- work has grown side by side with greater pro- whelmed, the driving force will no longer stem ductive resourcefulness. In this lies a partial from the once-welcome and enticing Commu- escape from the severe handicaps of small-scale nist bait of "Land and Liberty in Asia." agriculture pressed upon by a huge farm popu- lation. The Japanese village is in a state of "uplift" X which has enormously stimulated the desires for betterment. By the same token, the gap be- Such, in the main, are the consequences of tween anticipations and fulfillment will prob- Japan's land program. Even allowing for the ably grow. The task of post-reform rural Japan relatively short period since the transformation, is not complete fulfillment but rather to pre- the village "after" the reform is not the same vent the gap from getting out of hand. But as "before." But whether from now on the whatever the future holds in store for Japan's attainments will be further advanced and deep- farmers, to date the widespread influence of the ened lies not with the reform. Directly and in- reform has been sufficiently profound to make directly it will have added some new acreage, it an epoch-making event in the agrarian history but this will not change the holding pattern to of Japan and an important guidepost for post- any significant degree. The rising farm popula- war agrarian institutional changes in other tion is bound to reduce the holdings still fur- countries where they are long overdue. Self-Description/Appraisal 289 34. Self-descrtion /Appraisal By early 1960 Ladejinsky was in communication with the Ford Foundation about Icaving his post in Vietnam and going to work for the foundation. More specifically, a job in Nepal had been mentioned and apparently agreed upon in principle. A letter of June 15, 1960, from Ladejinsky to George Gant of the foundation is part of this correspondence. In this excerpt from that letter Ladejinsky provides a rare bit of self-description and appraisal. I was delighted to come across it. I AM NOT A TRAINED agricultural economist in and in Vietnam was of a special character. It the sense in which our agricultural colleges extended beyond agrarian reform matters. The turn them out. At Columbia I was interested latter has always been a primary concern, but mostly in economics and history. Nevertheless, beyond that was the attempt to influence gov- my first published work appeared in four issues ernments, if I may say so, along reform lines of the Political Science Quarterly (Columbia) and along lines which the specialists thought- dealing with the Soviet system of collective and and I agreed with them-made for a "rounded state farming. They were the first studies of out" agricultural economy. I worked with tech- this kind in English, still used by students con- nicians, "translated" them as it were into a more cerned with the origins of the Soviet economy. comprehensible idiom, and then tried, both In the many years with the Department of orally and in writing, to "influence" the proper Agriculture, from the lowliest rank until I re- people into accepting certain propositions. In placed Raymond Moyer as chief of the Far short, in making the trip to Nepal I should like Eastern division, I worked as an agricultural to ascertain, among other things, the kind of an economist, mainly concentrating on economic agricultural economist the foundation needs and social agrarian developments in Asia, with there. If it is a technician pure and simple, I am a bias in favor of tenure problems. not your man. On the other hand, I should I came to this chiefly as a result of a lesson imagine that USOM/Nepal has enough of the I learned from my own experience before I left other kind. R.ussia in early 1921, namely, that the Commu- It has been my experience in this part of nists would never have attained political power the world that little can be done in the eco- if they had not dealt with the land question nomic assistance field unless there is a clear resolutely, by turning the land over to the peas- awareness of the political climate of a given ants. But for the failure of the anti-Communist country and unless the "influencers" have the parties to settle this issue expeditiously, it is confidence of the people who make the deci- quite probable that I would be still running my sions. You will not accuse me of (being) lack- father's rather extensive flour-milling and ing in humility if I say that, if I have a "spe- timber interests. This is a digression to under- cialit6," I could lay claim to this one. Experi- score how I came into the profession through ence and natural predisposition to the idea that the back door, so to speak, rather than through one prospers in amity rather than discord have technical training. taught me the soundness of this approach. Much of my agricultural work in Japan, dur- Part of the same is the idea that, while the ing my frequent visits to Korea, slight brush grass roots must be reached through useful en- with the Chinese mainland, concentrated work deavors, there is no substitute for a close rela- in Formosa for short periods, work in India tionship with the elite. Small though this group 290 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 is in country after country, its representatives as well; I intend to play my role accordingly. mold public opinion and policies are shaped I touch upon this not as a "selling" point but by them or through them. I do not know the merely to outline, however briefly, how I view situation in Nepal, but I suspect it applies there some of my chores once I get to Nepal. 35. Exploration ofJob in Nepal It was late October 1960 before Ladejinsky could manage to take leave from his post in Vietnam and pay a visit to Nepal, where he made a broad assessment of the development situation and prospects in political and administrative as well as economic terms. He reported his findings in a letter to George Gant of the Ford Foundation, written on November 21 shortly after his return to Saigon. Although Nepal is a small country, the compass of Ladejinsky's interests and observations here is exceedingly broad. Another aspect of special interest is the insight into Ladejinsky's modus operandi. In the papers preceding, this has been more or less implicit; here it becomes quite explicit. AFTER MUCH CABLING, arranging, and counter- I should begin by saying that the timing of arranging, I finally made Delhi in the early my visit was not of the best. The three principal hours of October 23. I spent four days there members of the Planning Board were out of the mostly listening to people with knowledge of country. The deputy prime minister, who is the Nepal. Doug knew the right people and I had man directly responsible for the second five- no problem covering a fair amount of ground year plan, was away with the king in Europe. in a relatively short time. But no amount of The secretary of the Planning Board was at- information, no matter how accurate and well tending the Colombo conference in Tokyo, presented, can prepare one for the realities of while the chief economist and alleged author Nepal. I found the weather superb, the scenery of the plan was there, too. This was a disap- beyond compare, and the people charming. pointment, for I found myself critical of the Yet, this time, unlike eight years ago, I did plan and yet unable to voice my views to those not "fall in love" with the country. A beastly best able to defend or explain it. I am still cold contracted in the chilly rooms of the Royal smarting under this particular difficulty because, Hotel may have had something to do with it, willy-nilly, when pressed and pressed hard for but that was not serious. The reason is that an expression of an opinion, I appeared critical eight years ago the trip was mostly a lark; this of a plan built, as I shall point out presently, on time I dug deeply earning my "keep," and the the weakest of foundations. I have not failed great attraction which is Nepal proved to be to temper my criticism with praise; indeed, the no substitute for the realities one must face if authors deserve it for merely daring to deal with one is to work there fruitfully. I stress this be- developmental problems. I am afraid that the cause most Americans and Westerners I en- version of my position conveyed to the gentle- countered there "simply love" the place; I men then away from Kathmandu will reflect believe that it has much to do with good upon ine rather unfavorably. climate, good housing, and a few other com- I have lived in this part of the world long forts which make Nepal so pleasant to people enough to realize how easy it is to sound "nega- in a position to enjoy them. I found the prob- tive" about many aspects of underdeveloped leins of Nepal more disturbing and the com- Countries, particularly about a country such as forts of living less enticing. Nepal. One does not have to delve deeply into Exploration of Job in Nepal 291 the administrative and economic structure of but that the ABC's of administration and train- Nepal to find a lack of almost everything. We ing must come first of all. This, rather than the all know the reasons why India was in a posi- high-sounding goals, should be the concern of tion to carry on the morning after independence the American members of the planning board. and why Nepal cannot carry on with anything I say this because one of the characteristic fea- like similar dispatch. This knowledge should tures of the second five-year plan is not only not blind us to the fact that in Asia, Nepal is the absence of even a rough statistical base but the classic example of a medieval country which also an absence of any consideration of how to literally overnight assumed many of the forms move the planning from the paper stage into of a modern state with relatively little to sus- one of execution. tain it. I am not discovering any Americas when I spent many hours in Singha Durbar, the I say that even if the Planning Board produced former palace of the ruling prime ministers, the a reasonable sound plan that has some relation- Ranas, and presently the seat of the entire gov- ship to Nepal's own material base, revenues, ernment. I talked with a great many people of and current foreign aid, there is still the prob- all ranks and position. I found them interesting lem of implementation. As I looked about me and sympathetic and many not without so- in the Singha Durbar I couldn't help but won- phistication. But it is clear that instead of a der as to who was going to do that. Two days plan aping the Russians, the Chinese, the Indi- spent at Pokhra-an important district seat, 45 ans, and so forth, Nepal needs not a Planning minutes by plane or 9 days by foot--served Board for a second five-year plan (Nepal never only to reinforce my fears in this regard. With really had a first five-year plan) but a Planning it went the feeling that the service to Nepal Board which will attempt to create the rudi- and to the Planning Board can be rendered nients of an administrative machine. The ab- best on a step by step basis, building from the sence of this is the most striking feature of a ground up and eschewing fantasies. visit to any of the agencies housed in the I did not leave behind a written statement Singha Durbar. of any kind, but I conveyed some of my views I dwell upon this because of its relevance to a number of people. They met with appa- to the Planning Board and the foundation's in- rently little opposition in the Singha Durbar; tention to strengthen it. My base of operations in fact, some members of the Planning Board was mainly at the desk of the deputy secretary (appointed representatives from various agen- of the board, an engineer by training and, I cies) were not in disagreement with me at all, should add, a man to my liking. His intelli- but, said they, "Now try to air your views be- gence is in itself an asset, and I am not worried fore the deputy prime minister, the prime that he is not conversant with the dismal science minister, the gentlemen away in Tokyo, and of economics. What disconcerted me is the make then see the nature of your misgivings!" emphasis he and the others placed upon a plan This I tried to do. I had two long talks with which is not a plan at all. By the "others" I the prime minister and a short one with the tnean the prime minister; the deputy prime deputy prime minister in Calcutta. minister, with whom I caught up in Calcutta; I got along with the prime minister very and, by all accounts, the two gentlemen away well indeed, but I am not sure I convinced him in Tokyo. that the plan should be toned down; that while I have been asked to read the second five- anticipation must always be greater than reali- year plan and comment in writing. The latter zation, past a certain point the plan can become I refused to do. I did try to find out something a serious political handicap for his government; about the foundation or "the facts and figures" that the second five-year plan is, in effect, a upon which this ambitious expression of goals series of ill-conceived promissory notes and rests. In the process I came to deal with a good that a failure to pay up on due date is bound to many branches of government in the Singha spell trouble for the regime; that, without dis- Durbar. It is as a result of this exercise that I paraging the importance of a plan, many a came to believe that not only do they need country has done rather well in a planless sort something much more modest by way of a plan of way; and so on. I did not criticize the idea 292 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 of planning as such; I questioned only some countryside feel similarly. They have staged aspects of this particular second five-year plan. bloody riots against enforcement, while the As to the need of a Planning Board, I left no would-be beneficiaries have staged similar riots doubt in anybody's mind that Nepal needs one under the leadership of the extreme left. In the for many reasons, not the least reason being meantime, local elections in the past couple of that with so many aid-givers Nepal must have months have recorded a steep rise in the Con- an agency to make some order of the variety mInist vote, steep enough to give the prime of aid projects, their scope, projects being at minister sleepless nights. In the prime minis- cross-purposes with each other, and so on. In ter's eyes, the second five-year plan is the fact, I think that the whole problem of aid from weapon with which to counteract the extreme whichever source should be centered in and right and the extreme left. marshalled through the Planning Board. It is understandable why the prime minister In reply to some of my views, the prime is wedded to the plan and its implied promises minister pointed out that, politically speaking, of a higher standard of living, sizable expan- his government is committed to the second five- sion of industrial employment, and a change in year plan. There may be shifts within certain the character of the country's economy. By the priorities but, in the main, the plan is to re- same token, it is understandable why in his main as is. Clearly, this plan has become a opinion every economic move in Nepal is also fetish and against this I argued strongly, the a political move. Less understandable is his main point being that Nepal must mobilize and notion that sound economic development auto- develop her resources without the necessity of inatically yields political rewards. I took the squeezing everything into the plan. occasion to dispute the oversimplification of My talk with the deputy prime minister was the idea that a fuller stomach always goes hand along the same line and his reply did not differ in hand with political stability. The prime much from that of Mr. Koirala. Coming as it minister is intelligent enough to appreciate the did from a successful businessman, he left me fact that psychological elements, given rise by puzzled. Of course, the prime minister and his the manner in which a country is administered, deputy were in agreement about the plan's basic may prove to be vastly more significant in in- shortcomings, such as insufficiency of material suring the success or failure of a regime in resources, the weakness of the plan's assump- power than the economic elements. For the mo- tions, and the lack of an administrative machine ment, however, he prefers to stick to a line to implement them. Nevertheless, and surely which points, even if only in theory, to eco- for the time being, they stand by it. I did not nomic growth of the country. expect immediate results and I am not dis- There is another reason why the plan has couraged. Moreover, according to Doug's ac- become such a significant symbol for present- count of his and Dr. Hill's session with the day Nepal. The prime minister is an important prime minister, perhaps my presence was not leader of the country but not the important without its mark. withot lidthe ri leader. He cannot carry out his land legislation, I liked the prime minister very much. He is intelligent, liberal in the best sense of the word, not only because of the bureaucrats and local a sensitive man, indeed concerned with the landowners. He believes he could do the job welfare of his people, and would like to achieve in three months through mobile teams of his it by avoiding dictatorial means. He spoke own choosing. Unfortunately, the king himself, freely about his difficulties, "the social tensions" the real leader of the country, is not a whole- with which Nepal is ridden at the present time. hearted supporter of social reform measures. Their origin stems from the enacted legislation The same is true of the very powerful deputy to correct the abuses of the country's land prime minister, possibly the closest man to the ownership pattern. It is far from radical legisla- king. There are many important unofficial tion, but the prime minister cannot implement hangers-on who feel similarly. It is little won- it. He places the blame upon the officialdom der, therefore, that being thwarted in one direc- and the Singha Durbar, most of whom derive tion the prime minister is the more anxious to income from land. Besides, the owners in the demonstrate to the country that his regime is Exploration of Job in Nepal 293 capable of making economic progress along assistance type. It is well conceived and applied other lines. and obviously to the satisfaction of both parties. While in Kathmandu I looked into the aid I was deeply impressed by the chief of the programs of the United States, India, the United group, Brigadier Divers. The group is in the Nations, and that of the Ford Foundation. The Singha Durbar, where most foreign technicians Americans are not too happy with their pro- belong. gram. They realize that our aid is nine years I can speak as favorably of the Ford Founda- old and the question as to what it has con- tion cottage industries project. I know little of tributed is not easily answerable. The American the details, but even a cursory examination of aid program made up, in the words of Ameri- what is being created there, after a relatively can specialists, "of bits and pieces" is difficult short period of training, leaves one with the to "see" or point to. Evidently much has been impression of purposefulness. The multiplying said on that score by the Nepalese. The proj- effect of crafts learned is undoubtedly there. An ects are mainly agricultural and of "in the long official of Singha Durbar, mistaking me for a run" nature, since the transmission of agri- big Ford Foundation "wheel," pleaded with me cultural science and techniques is indeed a long- for a continued assistance to the project. This range affair. I carried away the impression that was in response to rumors that the foundation's under the new American aid director the pro- aid was about to phase out. Regardless of his gram will be subjected to a serious reappraisal plea, I felt strongly about the value of the and with an eye to more specific and more im- project and I discussed the matter with Drs. Hill mediately observable results. The feeling is that and Ensininger in this light. an organization made up of eighty Americans If my letter betrays more concern about should put in a better performance. Actually, Nepal than enthusiasm, it is because I cannot they don't belong miles away from the Singha accept the facile way of looking at the country. Durbar but right in it, beefing up what native It is not my intention to romanticize Nepal- service there is. this is being done to death and I am not in the The Indian aid program appears to me as business of promoting tourism. I believe that the most vigorous program in Nepal. For po- a person prepared to work there in earnest litical reasons too involved to go into, the should know something of the score and be Nepalese tend to be extremely critical of the ready for much frustration. This is not the way Indian economic aid. I have encountered an it should be, but this is the way it is bound to instance when a Nepalese official went so far be for a long to come and for good and suffi- as to deny that a rather important irrigation cient reasons. project created by India is the handiwork of Despite my reservations about the place, I the Indians. Nevertheless, my impression is . am willing to take on and give the chore a try that the Indians have performed very well in along the lines of my letter to you of June 15. road building and irrigation works; and, as an I know that they need fewer chiefs and more American agricultural specialist told me, "the Indians, but I prefer to wrestle with the so- Indians may yet demonstrate that their village called "broad picture." In this connection, I may block system is superior to what we are trying even try to talk you into hiring a well-rounded to do." agriculture economist. But this can wait till I The U.N. program is mainly of a technical get to New York. 294 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 36. Nepal's Five-year Plan One week after his letter to George Gant about his Nepal visit, Ladejinsky, on November 28, 1960, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Koirala, with whom he had met twice during his stay in Nepal. The subject matter of the two letters is essentially the same; they both center around Nepal's second five-year plan. The graceful diplomacy in which this second letter is couched contrasts interestingly with the blunt expression which marks the first. I WRITE THIS TO THANK you most warmly for is a good thing, and it is in fact a must for the privilege and pleasure of meeting and talk- Nepal to mobilize its resources. ing with you and for your kind hospitality. My The second point is that the utilization of stay in your country was much too short, but the resources must be highly selective, which you have, in a real sense, extended it by im- is to say, concentrated. I don't believe that it is planting in my mind problems and ideas I within the capacity even of nations richly en- would have otherwise missed. I am grateful to dowed- with material and human resources to you for this and your confidence in me that do everything at once and according to plan. went with it. The second five-year plan of Nepal gives that I also wish to take this opportunity to am- impression-except that it leaves out a most plify some of my observations about Nepal, important consideration: the means of imple- observations I touched upon during our second mentation. The Soviets have mobilized and con- session. I do this with great diffidence, for my centrated massive resources on a limited num- knowledge of your country is limited and the her of key sectors-productive investment, impressions I gathered are, for the most part, heavy engineering, technological education, fragmentary. With these reservations in mind, military-scientific research, and so forth. The I should like to raise a few points. United States has done similarly during the war, I feel strongly that anyone prepared to work albeit not always in the same fields. It is the in Nepal in earnest must have few illusions process of concentration rather than any de- about what can be done or what one must strive tailed overall planning which contributes to to do within the context of the available rapid growth of the selected fields. I emphasize material and human resources, domestic and this because in a country such as Nepal, and foreign. I say this with reference to the second for reasons I need not repeat here, the plan five-year plan. must be devoid of any scatteration of resources, fTve-yeargplan. wthe leitmotif being concentration on those fields To begin with, I am not against a 'plan" ot which lend themselves to the most return. The "planning' in general. I do not believe that exceptions are being taken for granted. these terms popularized by the Soviets have any Nepal is a classic case of an underdeveloped special Socialist or Communist life-giving mys- country in Asia. Additionally, Nepal is not a tique about them. The fact is that Soviet dictatorship. I mention the two in the same planning procedures in practice do not-or at breath because the insufficiency of capital re- least did not up to now-differ very much from sources cannot be exploited or augmented in those that were used during the war by Ameri- the manner practiced by dictatorships, which can and British governments, for example. In can do some things more easily-and with in- the language of both camps, planning simply punity-than democracies. One such thing is to means mobilization of resources. Naturally, it hold down real wages in the interest of capital Nepal's Five-year Plan 295 accumulation or military strength or imperial to meet the promises is likely to spell trouble grandeur. Dictators have been doing this sort for the regime in power. Hence, my concern of thing from time immemorial. about goals which may fall far short of fulfill- I bring this up not only because Nepal is a ment and my suggestion that the question of democracy but also because it is probably true implementation capabilities be given most seri- that the people wouldn't permit a further de- ous consideration. terioration of their already low standard of liv- To the extent that "planning" is another ing. If this assumption is correct and even term for concentration of resources, it appears recognizing the possibilities of additional tax to me that it would be advisable to welcome revenue, I carried away the impression of a any individual or group of individuals, Nepalese large gap between the capital resources required or non-Nepalese, capable of such an effort. by the second five-year plan and what is likely These may not fit into a formal plan, but this to be available. Not unrelated to this is the fact would not be of great moment for at least two that the ambitious second five-year plan takes reasons: (a) the insufficiency of governmental little account of the problem of implementation. expertise to implement the plan and (b) the The carrying out of a plan of this magnitude fact that many a country has most successfully presupposes a fair measure of administrative mobilized its resources in a "planless" sort of and technical competence of a fairly high order. way. Japan, Israel, and many other countries Regardless of this type of assistance contributed can serve as good examples. It is well to keep by foreigners, the problem of administrative this in mind and act upon it by seeking out and and technical training deserves the very highest encouraging all those who can make their con- priority; by the same token, the drafting of the tribution, in their own way, to economic growth plan should be reviewed in the light of this of the country. factor. I left Nepal with the impression that the If I understood you correctly, Mr. Prime second five-year plan is the very symbol of the Minister, you made the point that in Nepal country's future economic development and po- almost every economic measure is also a po- litical stability. No one can dispute the impor- litical measure and that by this token the sec- tance to Nepal of a rapid rate of economic ond five-year plan is of great political signifi- growth. This is self-evident and we must all cance. As a political economist I can readily strive to that end. Nevertheless, I wish to sound understand this. And yet, and at the risk of a word of caution in this regard. You will per- appearing lacking in daring, I should like to re- haps recall, Mr. Prime Minister, that I cited peat that, perhaps out of ignorance of Nepalese to you the case of South Vietnam where con- political conditions, the second five-year plan in siderable economic progress in recent years did its present form may prove to be something not necessarily spell political stability. I can less than a political boon. Anticipations must cite many more examples. One may retort that always be greater than realizations; but past a those are special cases, but I am inclined to the certain point, when the first far exceeds the thought that it is a mistake to assume that, in latter, the plan can become a political handicap. most underdeveloped countries, economics (and A political dictatorship isn't required to deal economic growth) always provide the prime with a free electorate possessing the power to motive of political action. I prefer the proposi- reward or punish. Mao Tse Tung's failure, for tion that, as one put it, "The dynamic of social instance, to demonstrate to the peasants and revolution in Asia and Africa is not a mass to the Chinese people in general that the corn- demand for tractors or for bread but the will munes are both an escalator to heaven and a and social conscience of a small intelligentsia ... source of inexhaustible food supplies had not Mutual aid, therefore, will not necessarily pro- endangered his rule, not for the time being. It vide an antidote to Communist revolutions." would be quite different in a country where the In short, while it is undeniably true that in voters exercise the privilege of return and recall. some countries the economic issue may be deci- In your country, Mr. Prime Minister, the second sive, we tend to overrate the importance of eco- five-year plan is akin to a series of political nomic factors as a political instrument. In promissory notes payable on due dates. Failure countries which hover on the brink of a West- 296 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 ern or Eastern alignment, the decisive influences ways and means of increasing the absorptive have usually not been rates of economic growth capacity of the country. I heard not a little talk or aid but political actions within or outside in Nepal about its inability to absorb more aid, those countries. Recent events in the Congo are followed by the inevitable question: "Why potentially far more explosive for the future more aid?" The absorptive capacity issue is of alignment of central Africa than hundreds of crucial importance, for it can largely determine millions of dollars of aid or several percentage the volume of aid from XYZ countries. points on the rate of growth. I mention none All of the aid, regardless of source, will have of this to decry the importance of economic aid to be examined in relation to the plan's goals. and particularly economic aid for a country with Five aid-givers, more or less, each one going such relatively limited resources as Nepal. Nor his own merry way, may not necessarily lead does this in any way minimize the need for a to a significant economic growth. If the aid- planning board in Nepal and its efforts to giving countries and their contributions are stimulate the economic growth of one country. not part-and-parcel of the country's mobiliza- I am merely suggesting the limitations of eco- tion of resources, the consequences are too obvi- nomic factors-whether planned or not-as a ous to call for comment. cure-all. These, Mr. Prime Minister, are some of the While not a cure-all, the economic factors points to which I wish to call your attention are admittedly important and indispensable in as I reflect upon my recent visit to Nepil. I many circumstances. In the case of Nepal, as of have not raised them merely to be critical. certain other underdeveloped countries, the two Your planners deserve much praise for daring obvious stimulants to economic growth are: to deal with the economic development of the (a) the building-up of an administrative and country. If I sound critical, it is only because technical organization to help give reality to it seemed to me, and possibly wrongly, that the country's economic resources; Nepal cannot the economic growth and the political stability rely indefinitely upon imported talent; and (b) of Nepal could be better served by relating availability of capital and capital formation, the second five-year plan more closely to the As to the latter, it is axiomatic that Nepal country's realities. will require initially a fairly large capital out- One last word about the results of the Ameri- lay. Whatever the actual sum, it is safe to as- can elections. As you gathered from our con- sume that Nepal's capital investment require- versations, they went my way. A New Deal in ments cannot be based exclusively on internal America was inevitable, and we are likely to accumulation and savings. The reason is clear: have it now. The issues for all of us are mo- Nepalese people live on a subsistence level and mentous enough and I would rather entrust have only a limited possibility to divert part of them to a young man with courage, daring, and their income from consumption to investment. ability than to a man who insists, at least pub- I am not sufficiently versed in the possibili- licly, that all is well with the United States. The ties of using Indian private capital in certain tasks and challenges Mr. Kennedy is prepared sectors of Nepal's future economic develop- to face do not leave much room for coin- ment. But generally speaking, private capital placency. Mr. Kennedy has promised a hard four imports and investments from highly developed peacency. Mr Kney haslpromised n hardfr conre. hnudreeoe conr-e- years, but perhaps they would be even hardier countries shun underdeveloped countries-ex- Ifh ee.o ee ceptions notwithstanding. Capital imports must if he were not here. therefore come in the form of government aid Once again, Mr. Prime Minister, accept my from those able to dispense it. thanks for your kindness and consideration. I Nepal has been receiving such aid for some hope to return to Nepal before many months time and will undoubtedly in the future. How- pass. In the meantime, I intend to revisit Wash- ever, the current attempt to attain an economic ington in the hope of meeting some of the breakthrough via the second five-year plan, people of the new administration. I shall not whether modified or not, imposes upon the forget Nepal when given the opportunity to planners the obligations to examine more criti- air my observations about this part of the cally the volume of aid, its composition, and the world. Land Reform in Indonesia 297 37. Land Reform in Indonesia I have given this title to a letter written by Ladejinsky to A. T. Mosher, executive director of the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs (now the Agricultural Development Council) of New York on January 24, 1961. The council, it is clear, had asked Ladejinsky to visit Indonesia and offer what advice he could to the minister for agrarian reform. Ladejinsky spent some ten days there. Although he did not this time go out into the field, he learned enough to warrant telling the minister some unhappy truths about Indonesia's recently enacted land "reform." He also sent the minister a note, on returning to Saigon, attaching a copy of his memorandum on the land commissions which had played so essential a role in the implementation of the Japanese land reform. I AM JUST BACK from Jakarta and a I am upon the shape of things to come, given the rather rushed trying to clean up here before my conditions outlined for us by our Indonesian departure for London and then the States. Ralph hosts. In short, I tried to sober them up and Allee, who participated in all my discussions they know that they are in trouble. I deeply with the Indonesians, will give you an idea of regret the lack of time to visit the countryside. what transpired there, and I shall talk with you I strongly suspect that a look-see there would at length when I reach New York. All you get have served to underscore the inadequacy of now is a brief summary of the promised "fill the reform effort here. in." The agrarian reform is intended for Java The Indonesian trip, including travel time, above all, where allegedly 60 percent of the lasted only eleven days; but, looking back, it was farmers have virtually no land at all. The stated not without its value. I learned something and aim of the reform is to provide them with land. chancfes are that the Indonesians would admit It was my unpleasant duty to tell the min- to the same. I had no idea what they were after; ister that this was not in the cards, not only and, while my ignorance is still abysmal, I do because land is scarce in Java and people are appreciate now why they are so desperately many but more specifically because the legisla- calling for help and why only a miracle can tion is so drawn up as to prevent the release help them to make some sense out of their of a sizable acreage for distribution. voluminous, disjointed, contradictory, and alto- The principal joker in the legislation is the gether too politically, conservatively inspired amount of land a landowner can retain on the agrarian reform legislation. one hand and the minimum guaranteed to the One doesn't have to spend much time in the landless on the other. The latter is a fiction be- Ministry for Agrarian Reform to be reminded cause in Java there simply is no arable land, of the stolen horse and the locked stable. I actual or potential, to insure for the landless a mean to say that the damage, the enacted legis- minimum of 2 hectares per family. The maxi- lation, is an accomplished fact. What is so dam- mum can range from 5 to 7.5 to 10 hectares, aging about it is that the agrarian legislation depending upon the density of population. In is hardly rooted in the realities of the existing the 64 districts of Java (out of a total of over conditions and that the high-sounding purposes 100), a maximum retention of 5 hectares will of the reform have no great chance of being not create any significant excess for redistribu- accomplished. If I rendered any service at all, it tion. Roughly the same holds true for the other is mainly because I couldn't help but speak out parts of Java. Moreover, if the contemplated 298 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 order of priorities establishing claims on the him the idea that, since he and I are agreec excess becomes a reality, little indeed will be that the landless need a New Deal, drastic re- available for the landless. visions of the recently enacted legislation arc It was not difficult to question the sound- in order. The minister is essentially a politically ness of the core of the intended reform. The minded man-and at one point way over to the explanation lies in the extremely conservative left. I did not have to labor the point that approach to the problem of the land hungry, an despite the stated and implied promises of lanc approach dictated by powerful political groups. to the tiller, the enabling document is shot They prefer no retention limits on Javanese through with conservative safeguards in ordei holdings and as of the moment they seem to to prevent any significant redistribution of have carried the day despite the specified ceil- land. The minister understood that I was not ings. The radical language of the preamble is moralizing the issue but merely pointing out something quite apart from the business of the political risks due to the likely failure to giving land to those who cultivate somebody make political capital among the many who else's land. I had quite a bit to say on the sub- can furnish it. And the more so since the esti- ject. The officials, including the minister, saw mated total number of landowners in Java with the point; but I doubt if this problem will be more than 5 hectares is only 24,000, if I recall given another hearing. For the same reason I the figure correctly. question much of the raison d'etre of the re- As it stands now, and mindful of how little form. I know of Javanese village conditions, I don't No thought whatsoever has been given so believe that the intended reforms will provide far to the question of land prices and of fi- the Javanese land workers and sharecroppers nancing the program. This constituted the sec- with much land. I am almost inclined to the ond main topic of discussion. I called attention view that it is essentially an anti-land redistri- to some possible ways and means of dealing bution program, although I am certain that it with this aspect of the reform so that whatever was not planned that way originally. In the amount of land is redistributed it would not long run the phraseology will deceive no one, become a burden upon the new owner. It is and so I restated the obvious for the minister's clear that those who drafted the program have benefit, namely, that if the promissory notes are elected, for whatever reason, to overlook this not made good the chickens will surely come obviously touchy and difficult problem. I know home to roost. of no legislation of this kind with so significant Ralph will support me when I say that our an omission. talks proceeded in a most friendly atmosphere. The third area under discussion was the en- No offense was taken by either party at any forcement of the reform. Not nearly enough time. The minister was eager to listen and he thought has been given to this matter. The ex- did not try to gloss over the difficult, if not perience of other countries came into the impossible, task Sukarno wished on him. I picture and always with the emphasis that even believe he would change the character of the the best legislation could not possibly be imple- legislation if it were up to him, but is not up mented unless the government has the will to to him. He was eager to have me tell the gov- see it through and unless certain administrative ernment-meaning Sukarno-what I have been devices are created to go on with the job. It is telling him, but I did not have the time to in partial answer to this problem that I outlined wait some extra days for an appointment. He the role of the land commissions in Japan, and needs assistance, I sympathize with his posi- later on in Taiwan, in a memorandum of which tion; and I regretted very much that I had so a copy is attached. little time at my disposal. There is an old I could say much more about this brand of Jewish saying to the effect that one cannot at- Indonesian agrarian reformism, but the above tend two fairs with one ass-at the same time. should suffice as an example of how not to try to In my case it is three, at least right now. give land to the landless. The minister is an Despite the brief time spent in Jakarta, I intelligent and fairly well-informed man. I did dare say that the trip proved to be useful. I not have to use a sledge hammer to convey to judge this by the fact that I left the minister in Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 299 a much more troubled state of mind. Therein worthwhile investing time-assuming that I may lie some beginnings of wisdom; but, and had some to spare-is another matter. My skep- I repeat, I doubt that the glaring shortcomings ticism stems from the knowledge that, in such a of the program will be corrected. The seem- highly personalized government as the Indo- ingly unbelievable way in which leadership and nesian, the number one, Mr. Sukarno, must be government carry on in Indonesia argues against influenced if real progress is to be made. Re- thoughtful and carefully considered proposi- gretfully, I am not sure that I could reach him, tions, be they radical or conservative. I carried and, even if reached, I am not sure that I could away the impression that as of now form counts find the key to a man whose attitude toward most in Indonesia; substance is often trouble- affairs of state is a great puzzle and wonderment some, and the tendency is to shy away from it to me and countless others. Under the circum- especially when it is immediately troublesome. stances, I consider my brief venture into the But having said this, I do not deny that the agrarian reform business of Indonesia as pretty minister can be influenced along certain lines. much completed. I have evidence to support my contention; I I realize how sketchy all of the above is, will go so far as to say that he will try to act and I console myself with the thought that we upon some of the suggestions made in the shall discuss the matter in some detail in New course of our discussions. Whether it is really York in mid-February. 38, Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam Late in 1959 Ladejinsky presented an earlier version of this paper to a Conference on Social Development and Welfare in Vietnam held in New York City. Whether that earlier version was substantially modified or merely updated for publication in 1961 is not clear. Despite the intimations of agrarian reform achievement briefly indicated in his December 1959 article, Ladejinsky's fuller account here of the substantial progress made by Diem's govern- ment in the late 1950s in improving conditions of land tenure, rent reduction, land reclamation and resettlement, and, finally, land redistribution will probably occasion real surprise. Given President Diem's inherent conservatism, it seems clear that a large share of the credit for persuading him to promulgate the land redistribution program in 1956 and to carry it through must go to Ladejinsky. "The real opposition to agrarian reform," Ladejinsky points out, "was provided by Radio Hanoi and the Communist agents in the countryside." They could not afford, he makes it plain, to let Diem's reforms succeed and later expand, as Ladejinsky thought would happen in the absence of Communist disruption. This suggests it was the fear that Diem might in this way win the solid support of the peasantry that caused the Communists to intensify their efforts in the early 1960s to bring his government down. Was the degree of agrarian reform that was achieved by 1960-61 perhaps an important factor in helping South Vietnam to hold out as long as it did? Reprinted with permission of The Free Press, a Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. from Problems of Freedom: South Vietnam since Independence, edited by Wesley R. Fishel. Copyright © 1961 by the Board of Trustees of Michigan State University. IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, agrarian reform is ferent names, in different countries, and vari- probably as old as farming itself. Under dif- ously interpreted, it has meant easing the 300 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 burden of the man working the land, particu- cultivate. Farmer tenants cultivate the land larly of the man working somebody else's land under vastly improved terms of tenure. While for a pittance. In speaking of Asia alone, an the movement to create stable individual private interested observer can count the "pittance" proprietorship of land is not yet complete, the farmers by the million. But times have changed: direction and achievements to date are unmis- an overworked and overexploited peasantry takable. The Japanese say that a peasant with- that for centuries was inertly miserable has now out land is like a man without a soul. This holds awakened and demands basic alterations in its true for the landless wherever they may be. condition-in many instances successfully. And in Vietnam, as in other parts of Asia, The peasant awakening is part and parcel of there are now vastly greater numbers of peas- the post-war revolutionary ferment in which ants in possession of their own "souls." How Asia has been engulfed. It is also part of the this came about, its significance, and its conse- realization that in predominantly agrarian Asia quences is the subject of this chapter. the new order of things, economic or political or both, depends primarily on the solution of the land question, namely, land for the landless. In a different setting, the Russian Communists No two Asian countries are alike, but they exploited this fact forty-two years ago. For the all have certain features in common and the Russian peasants, liberty meant the ownership land tenure system is one of them. Whether in of the lord's land. The Communist promise in the Far East or Southeast Asia, the age-old 1917 (which was ultimately broken) that the wretchedness of the peasant has the same roots. land would belong to the people who worked it More often than not there are too many people proved to be an issue of the greatest political pressing on too little land; sometimes, as was importance. The Communists would never have the case till recently in the southern part of obtained power in Russia had they not success- free Vietnam, peasant poverty prevails in con- fully exploited the peasant's longing for the ditions of a relatively small farm population landlord's acres. and an abundance of land. For the most part, The triumph of the Communists in China inadequate tools, primitive methods of cultiva- is another case in point. Many are the reasons tion, and institutional arrangements over which which explain their seizure of power, but one the peasant has no control are common features cause is beyond dispute: Nationalist China was of the tenant's life and work. Without moral- defeated not so much by force of arms as by izing about the tenant-landlord relations as the Communist tactic of promising land to the they have developed, it is undeniable that much poverty-stricken, landless, hopeless peasantry. of the peasant's misery results from this rela- It would be a mistake, however, to assume tionship to which customs, courts, and govern- that because the Communists placed the land ments have given official sanction over the question in the center of Asian politics, they years. enjoy a monopoly on agrarian reform. Aside Vietnam was no exception, and this is par- from the fact that neither the Russian nor the ticularly true of what was formerly known as Chinese Communists kept their promise to the Cochin China. This is a huge rice plain of some peasants, efforts to give the Asian peasants a 64,000 square kilometers criss-crossed by canals, greater stake in the land antedate the Commu- lying in the southwestern part of present-day nists. The issue has been dealt with by the Asian Vietnam. Before the extension of French rule countries since the war. Japan, for example, did into this entire area in 1874, there were less not wait upon the Chinese Communists to point than 400,000 hectares under cultivation; seventy the way to reform. The movement to Jeal with years later the cultivated area had risen to more the problem has been completed in a number of than two million hectares. The region had be- countries and is under way in others. Free Viet- come the authentic breadbasket of the country nam is among them. with an exportable surplus of rice of around Agrarian reform there is not merely a slogan 1 to 1.2 million tons. It is here that Vietnam's designed to serve other ends. Large groups of present land redistribution program is concen- tenants are becoming owners of the land they trated, because it wvas here more than in any Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 301 other part of the country that Asian landlordism by small proprietors who could not meet their with some of its worst features had taken root. burden of indebtedness except through fore- By 1955 Vietnam had a very roughly esti- closure and eviction. mated total of about a million tenants, of whom about 600,000 were in southern Vietnam and H 400,000 in central Vietnam. The tenancy prac- tices in the two parts of the country differ With so much land in so few hands and the sharply. Individuals owning many thousands of loss of land by small proprietors, tenancy was hectares are not rare in southern Vietnam-and inevitable. Whereas in the older, settled part of widespread tenancy is its hallmark. In central Vietnam individual proprietorship was pre- Vietnam peasant proprietorship accounts for dominant on the eve of the Second World War, approximately three-fourths of the cultivated in the south two out of three families had no land, and landholdings are small. Of the esti- land at all; they worked somebody else's land mated 650,000 landowners, no more than about either as tenants or agricultural laborers. In the 50 own more than 50 hectares each, and barely sections of the greatest land concentration, at a dozen own more than 100 hectares. The great least 80 percent was cultivated by peasants who mass of landlords own 5 to 10 hectares each; owned virtually no land whatever. A tenant an- the system closely resembles the petty land- swering a question asked by this writer about lordism once prevalent in Japan, Korea, For- the farmer categories with which he was fa- mosa, and a number of Southeast Asian coun- miliar put the situation very simply: "We are tries; and this explains why the current land all mostly tenants and some of us are farm redistribution program does not apply to central hands." He did not exaggerate by leaving out Vietnam. the exceptions. The south presents an entirley different This pattern, even though there was an picture. In a total cultivated rice area of 2.3 abundance of land and a moderate population, million hectares, the concentration of land resulted in tenure conditions normally found in ownership was one of the highest in the Far Asian countries where population pressure is East or Southeast Asia. Approximately 2.5 per- extremely acute. Rentals were as heavy as any cent of the owners, with more than 50 hectares to be found in Asia-50 percent of the crop. each, possessed roughly one-half of the cultivated The tenant had to provide his own hut, tools, land. Conversely, more than 70 percent owned and livestock and hire supplementary labor at less than 5 hectares each, which gave them an the height of the season. Often short of rice for estimated total of only 12.5 percent of the culti- food or seed, he borrowed from the landlord, vated land. In the province of Bac Lieu 9 per- repaying double the amount when he harvested cent of the landowners had 70 percent of the his crop. By the time the tenant had discharged land, while 72 percent of the farmers had no all his obligations, his share of the crop was land at all, or at most a hectare or two. In the roughly a third of the total. province of Can Tho 4 percent of the landlords For the typical five-hectare tenant, conditions possessed more than 50 percent of the land. were worse. A case study cited in the work of Roughly the same pattern was repeated in a well-known French agricultural economist province after province of what had been sheds much light on this problem.' He writes Cochin China. as follows: Two principal developments explain this concentration. The French colonial administra- In the fifth month, at the beginning of the tion sold huge tracts of virgin land at nominal heavy field-work period, he has obtained prices or gave them away to selected individuals from his landlord a loan of 35 gia2 of rice -French and Vietnamese. The few truly big and five piasters His crop yields 300 gia. rice holdings were in the hands of French com- From this quantity he must deduct 30 gia panies of which the single largest, the "Domaine Agricole de l'Ouest," accumulated a total of 1. Pierre Gourou, L'utilisation du sol en Indo- 20,000 hectares. The other important reason chine franfaise, p. 408. for the land concentration was the loss of land 2. A gia equals 44 pounds. 302 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 for the extra rice consumed during the har- began, among other things to attack the old vest time, 70 gia for the repayment of the village order, the response was immediate. They rice loan of 35 gia (100 percent interest gained control of the countryside and the sup- rate), 12.5 gia for the repayment of the five- port of the peasants not only by appealing to piaster loan, 150 gia as land rent, or a total a deeply rooted desire to get rid of the French of 262.5 gia. There remains 37.5 gia of his but by addressing themselves to the land ques- crop, which is little more than 10 percent of tion as well. what he has harvested. It is not suficient to The Communists lived off the land, and the live on and, like the coolie, the small tenant tax burdens they imposed were often no less must look for a job, but still he has the ad- burdensome than the rental formerly collected vantage of being able to borrow. by the landlords. Nevertheless, they posed suc- Even the middle tenant with five to ten cessfully as fighters for the national cause and hectares of rented land was not much better defenders of the peasants against the rich off. The study concluded: "On the whole, the gentry. They convinced the peasants that sacri- . fices in the form of the heavy grain tax were living standard of those we call middle tenants pic exession of the pea s ar fr is not very high and is only slightly different liberation." The Communists had no land dis- from the living standards of the lower cate- tibution programnbut h cond the gories."tribution program, but they convinced the gories.' . landless that the landlord's acres would belong Those who had some rice for sale were not evnulytthmadncrgdteioc- alwayseventually to them and encouraged their occu- ancy agreements stipulated that the landlord pation of abandoned land. The payment of rent an ahegmets stpulhated t and lor his virtually ceased. The wealthy landlords disap- had the right of purchase, and usually at his peared from the countryside, fearing for their price. The role of the landlord in relation to his lives; and much of the pattern created by Coin- land and tenant was essentially that of a rent . a t tmunist agitation in Russia and China repeated collector, and often this role was performed I collngetr itself in Vietnam. Here, too, the appeal went to by an agent who made part of his profit out of the heart of the matter-land of one's own and the tenant. On top of this was the basic handi- . an end to the traditional landlord-tenant rela- cap of insecurity of tenure with no bargaining tionship. between landlord and tenant worth mentioning. The support the Communists gained in the The entire landlord-tenant relationship was countryside was not lost on Bao Dai's govern- shot through with exactions, and this in turn mnent. The emphasis the Communists placed bred the heavy burden of indebtedness and upon the land question and the favorable re- usury. Almost everybody in the village was in sponse it evoked fron the peasants were at debt to the landlord or to the moneylender. least partially responsible for some government Interest rates of 5, 10, and more percent a mont wee cmmon Ladlods smetmes recognition of the existence of a land problem month were common. Landlords sometimes and the need to do something about it. made more profit from lending money than In his New Year's message of February 2, renting land. In general, lenders were less inter- 1951, Bao Dai stated that the land would not ested in the return of a loan than in keeping the be taken back from the peasants who had tenant in a constant state of indebtedness. The occupied the landlords' property during the net result of this type of tenure system based "troubles" and were still cultivating it. This upon rack renting, lack of security of tenure, was to be done "without harming the former and widespread usury was a large class of land- large proprietors who have a claim to just com- less, impoverished, and discontented peasants. pensation." Land concessions were to be limited by law, as were the terms of credit traditional III between proprietor and tenant in order to pro- tect the peasant against perpetual indebtedness. Thus there is little wonder that the Viet- A National Committee for Agrarian Reform namese Communists found fertile ground in the was organized in mid-1952; in early 1953 Presi- villages for their own political ends. When, im- dent Nguyen Van Tam announced that hence- mediately after the Second World War, they forth rents were in no case to exceed 15 percent Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 303 of the crop, and this ruling was followed up on first deals with the reduction of rents and se- June 4, 1953, by a number of legal provisions. curity of tenure, the second with the distribu- Briefly, the ordinances called for cancellation tion of land among the landless. of certain land concessions which had remained When the Ngo Dinh Diem government uncultivated or unleased and for the redistribu- assumed power, the countryside was in a sad tion of such land among squatters and other condition. Farmland was abandoned and over- specially deserving groups. Rent was reduced grown with weeds; irrigation and drainage fa- to a level not exceeding 15 percent of the crop, cilities had fallen into disrepair; canals, the additional rent to be agreed upon between land- indispensable waterways of the south, needed lord and tenant for buildings, tools and draft redredging; the greater part of the work ani- animals. Land leases were to be written for a mals had been killed off, and all of this was re- minimum of five years, and there were what ap- flected in a sharp decline in production and peared to be limitations on the size of holdings. the disappearance of the all-important surplus However, the provisions of this ordinance (no. of rice for export. And the deterioration was 21) were so watered down as to make it mean- not only physical. After years of Communist ingless. In effect, the landlords did not have to penetration into the villages by means of attrac- sell or otherwise dispose of the land they held tive nationalistic slogans, the peasants emerged in excess of these limits; the sole limitation was into the new era a very bewildered lot. Their upon the acquisition of additional land either main worry was that the old landlord-tenant by purchase or lease. arrangements might prevail again. This fear These provisions were poorly conceived and was a real one, for in many sections of the drawn up. They went either too far, as in the country the occupants had not paid rent for a 15 percent rent rate, or not far enough, as in the decade or more and, in the process, had come to so-called limitation on the size of holdings. feel that occupancy of the land was tantamount When President Nguyen Van Tam went about to ownership. Now, having acquired land with- the countryside promising this low rental, it out due process of law, they were not certain was more an act of desperation than an en- that they would be able to hold onto it. forceable provision. It was neither equitable The first official answer to those fears came nor realistic. Even the Communists fixed a shortly after Ngo Dinh Diem's assumption of maximum rental of 25 percent, and no peasant power. It was unquestionably the darkest period with the memory of a traditional rental of 50 in the seven-year history of the Republic of percent could view the 15 percent rent seri- Vietnam. Much had to be done in a hurry, and ously. It was an ineffective propaganda device. the material and psychological conditions in The real difficulty, however, did not reside rural Vietnam did not permit procrastination. in these hastily drafted half measures which With that in mind, the government promul- were never applied. The most carefully pre- gated two basic measures embodied in ordi- pared provisions would have met with the same nances 2 (January 8, 1955) and 7 (February fate had the government been bent on enforcing 5, 1955). They dealt with items directly affect- them. The overriding fact was that the govern- ing the welfare of the tenants-rent reduction, ment did not hold sway over the countryside. security of tenure, and putting abandoned land its power was nominal even in the so-called back into cultivation. controlled areas. Only after the Geneva agree- The main provisions of these ordinances ment, which divided the country in two, and were as follows: rentals ranged from 15 to 25 the evacuation of the visible Communist pres- percent of the principal crop; a loan of seed or ence from South Vietnam were the conditions fertilizer was repayable at cost price plus an created whereby the countryside could be interest rate not exceeding 12 percent per year; reached through agrarian reform measures. And all contracts had to be in writing; the life of a this is precisely what the Ngo Dinh Diem lease was a minimum of five years, and the government has been doing since its assump- traditional right of a landlord to cancel a lease tion of office. agreement was circumscribed; village, district, The government's efforts to ease the lot of and provincial committees were to be created tenants fall into two closely related parts. The to settle landlord-tenant disputes; finally, penal- 304 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 ties were provided in case of failure to comply pressing refugee problem. After years of Com- with the provisions of the ordinances. munist indoctrination in the villages, the posi- In the years of war and civil war an esti- tion of the government was far from strong. mated 1.3 million hectares of cultivated land The lack of administrative machinery to imple- had been abandoned. It was the purpose of the ment the newly proclaimed government land government to put this land back into cultiva- policies was in itself a tremendous handicap. tion as soon as possible, through the application And so it was that during the greater part of of ordinance 7. The significant provisions were 1955 few tenants called the local officials to these: having determined the amount of the task for not keeping them informed about the abandoned or uncultivated acreage, each owner program, and fewer officials called tenants to must declare his intentions with respect to his task for not pursuing their rights under the land. If he refused to cultivate the land him- ordinances. self, he had to lease the land to tenants of his There were other reasons why the applica- own choosing. In that event, a three-year lease tion at first proceeded at a snail's pace. For was to be executed under which the tenant paid different reasons both tenants and landlords no rent during the first year, half of the pre- were reluctant to sign contracts binding them scribed rent of 15 or 25 percent during the to the conditions spelled out in the ordinances. second year, and three-fourths of the rent dur- Many a tenant had not paid rent in years, ing the third year. The landlord, in turn, was and thus even the admittedly low rent of 15 to exempted from the land tax, and so was the 25 percent appeared to be an imposition. tenant. On the expiration of the special three- Others, whose occupation of land had been year contract, the normal contract for five years sanctioned by the Communists, believed that became compulsory. In the case of absentee their ownership had already been confirmed landlords, the village council had the right to and that signing a contract now would invali- allocate land to people willing to cultivate it. date their claim to ownership. There were also The rent, after deduction of taxes, was to be the fence sitters, those who believed the Com- held by the provincial treasury for future pay- munist propaganda that by July 1956 the coun- ment to the owner. Model contracts were drawn try would be reunited on Communist terms, up, printed, and distributed by hundreds of with all the former landlords' land falling into thousands as an aid to implementation, their hands. In short, the heritage of Commu- These early measures were undertaken, not nist village activities hindered the favorable re- as a means of solving all of the land problems ception of the rent reduction program. of Vietnam but in order to alleviate or elimi- The attitude of the landlords was no less nate some of the worst anomalies of landlord- negative. They felt abused by having rents radi- tenant relations in Vietnam. Some of the cally reduced after years of great losses tinder provisions could have been better conceived, the Communists. A chief of a province, himself particularly the 15 to 25 percent rental range, a landlord, spoke to this observer for most other since it was bound to give rise to disputes. But landlords when he said, We have been robbed it must be remembered that the effort was being bynthesVien i er te, an e resent madeat tie whn te nw goernentwas by the Viet Minh over the years, and we resent made at a time when the new government was. struggling for its life, that the odds against it similar treatment from the national govern- survival were most formidable, and that ad- ment." Some went so far as to insist on retro- ministrative machinery barely existed in the active rent payment as a condition for leasing capital, the provincial centers, and the villages. their land; others wished to take back the land The implementation of the program in these occupied by the tenants during the Viet Minh circumstances proved to be a difficult task. days, while most of them dreamt of regaining It is not surprising that the application of the kind of land control they had had in the these measures got off to a very slow start. For pre-civil war days. It appeared as if tenant and nearly a year after their promulgation, the at- landlord reluctance and lack of administrative tention of the government was centered on effort and perseverance were conspiring to controlling the Binh Xuyen political thugs, the thwart the nascent changes in the old land Cao Dai sect, and the Hoa Hao and solving the tenure system of Vietnam. Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 305 IV a landlord-tenant assembly, "In the old days, what the landlord said the land produced was In reality, the difficulties proved to be tempo- law, and I paid accordingly. Now I know what rary. As the Ngo Dinh Diemn government grew .awanIpidcorngyNwIkow ht . Ait produces and I won't accept his estimate any in strength and political stability, so did the longer." His was not an isolated case; ie voiced acceptance of its measures. With the financial . . .. the break with the old tradition wherein the assistance of the U.S. aid program, the adminis- landlord had undisputed control over the land. trative part of the program also improved Perhaps the real significance of these meas- markedly. Although few in number, the 200 ures is that they represent the first breach in the land reform agents carried the gospel with some traditional view of landlordism as the basis of measure of success. In time the farmers came to wealth, political power, and social prestige. Its know the basic provisions, and the early indif- significance extends beyond the immediate aim ference-if not hostility-of the provincial and of improving the lot of the tenants; newly district authorities gave way to a recognition emerging countries such as Vietnam must cur that the ordinances must be enforced. The land- l loose from their feudal moorings as a pre- lords were told that the government's struggle requisite to their economic independence and for security and political stability would not political stability. Another consequence of great result in a restoration of the old land tenure . . .importance remains to be noted. The measures arrangements. Helpful, too, particularly in the noted here and the land rehabilitation program south, was the work of the tenants' union as touched upon did in fact foreshadow the land spokesman for the tenants. The joint commit- redistribution program. tees, made up of five elected tenants and an The government program to bring the equal number of landlords under the chairman- abandoned land back into cultivation was suc- ship of the chief of the province or his cessful. Ordinance 7, relating directly to this appointee, gradually, if very slowly, came to problem, stimulated many owners into action; function as conciliators of landlord-tenant dis- probe stimulatmy or into ato .those who were dlilatory or incapable of re- putes. They have never reached the achieve- rnents of the land commission in Japan, for camn h adswterpoete ae met f h an omiso i aan.o over by the government for refugee settlement. example; but, in dealing with the ten thousand ove oy t omntr rfe h settle In view of administrative handicaps and the disputes recorded so far, they have helped to need to do so much with so little, this was not lessen the tensions generated by what seemed be irecocilale psitins.an easy chore. Yet to date most of the aban- to doned land is back in production. The reclaim- As a result of these developments, the imple- . mentation of the program quickened in mid- m . serious technical problems, but there is ample 1956. By the end of June 1959 there were evidence that the priority the government gives 800,000 contracts under ordinances 2 and 7, or th to the rehabilitation of the country's agricultural 80 percent of all contracts theoretically possible. economy will eventually put all of the cultivable It is probably not true that no tenant pays more land into production. than the specified rent; this is particularly true The settlement of the refugees played a in central Vietnam, where the competition for great role in helping make ordinance 7 a reality, small landholdings is intense. Nevertheless, at the i San me oroje 7 ity, and the Cai San resettlement project is its most there is reason to believe that the majority of dramatic expression. the tenants pay the legal rate, while hardly any Cai San is a great rectangle of some 110,000 pay the high traditional rental. The benefits to hectares of land. Bounded by canals to the east the tenants are obvious. Equally important is and west, the Bassac River (the southern-most security of tenure-duration of lease, freedom branch of the Mekong) defines the northern from eviction at owners' will, and so on, guaran- boundary, while to the south lies the Gulf of teed by written contract. The complete de- Siam. Less than six years ago the greater part pendence of tenant upon landlord has under- of this land was abandoned, a weed-growing gone a change. Even in mid-1955, when the wilderness, a hideaway for bandits. It is now program was under way but hardly off the a thriving settlement. The refugee settlers of ground, this observer heard a tenant say before Cai San, with the simplest of tools, dug seven- 306 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 teen canals totaling 125 miles in length and V built their huts atop the embankments. The Rent reduction, better leases, and land re- American aid tractors were there with ex-taxi habilitaion were all-important ends in them- drivers to run them. The results speak well for the remarkable selves. Nevertheless, to one who can remember performance of the settlers, for the Vietnamese the mood of the peasantry in 1955, it was clear administrators who rose to the challenge, and even then that the government land policies for the American aid which boldly and intelli- were not going to end with ordinances 2 and 7. for prd the Amerfcanaiawhi ly and irte- The Vietnamese landless, like the landless the gently provided the financial means for the world over, were after one thing-land of their venture. The promise of only five years ago is own. This was particularly true of the south, now a reality. The settlers received theit 3- where the vast holdings of the landlords loomed hectare holdings virtually as a gift. They are large in the eyes of the tenants. One telling harvesting good crops, paying their own way, picture that comes to mind was the spokesman and are refugees no longer. Ordinance 7 suc- of a village group saying to the minister of ceeded better than was anticipated; not only is agrarian reform that "the village needs peace, the land being rehabilitated, but the refugees and the landlord-tenant conflicts will never have become productive farmers and full mem- cease until the tenants own the land." In prov- bers of Vietnam's body politic. ince after province and village after village But it is not only Cai San and the other Cai farmers expanded on this theme, often to the Sans which are being built on the southern discomfiture of local and central officials not plains of Vietnam. On the initiative of the prepared to discuss the issue. president, new settlements are being carved out Strange as it may seem at first glance, the of the highland wilderness north of Saigon, tenants found an ally-a reluctant ally to be where three years ago virtually none but no- sure-in the big landholders. It was true that madic tribesmen lived. While this effort is not the landlords opposed the low rentals, but it a part of the agrarian reform programn, i is, was equally true that their experiences in the nevertheless, an extension of the agrarian poli- past decade had had a sobering effect. They cies discussed here. were interested in selling their land. Their bold Into this almost unknown heavily forested pretense that little or nothing had changed had more form than substance. There were few big mountain area of the High Plateau, until re- landlords in Vietnam during this period who cently little more than Bao Dais hunting pre- would not concede that traditional landowning serve, nearly 60,000 people have moved from had fallen on evil days. They knew that sooner the overcrowded coast of central Vietnam. They or later they would have to lose much if have exchanged their rented half-hectare plots not all of their land, and their problem was for three-hectare holdings given them by the how to make the best of a difficult situation. government. With the government's technical This explains why, even with the Commu- and financial assistance, they have cleared much nists gone and security being established, one of their land, built their homes, put in their encountered serious debates among landlords crops, and are on the way to becoming eco- about the best ways of disposing of their land. nomically independent. The project has proved It was not the selling price but the method of to be a pioneering venture of more than purely payment that was the main stumbling block. economic significance. Equally significant are Tenants likewise assumed that the land would the political and military consequences of popu- have to be paid for, but just as the rent reduc- lating empty spaces with settlers notoriously tion program divided the two groups, so did the anti-Communist, for these sparsely populated method of payment for land purchase, although areas of the highlands have long provided the the issue for the moment appeared academic. Communists with a safe route for infiltration The consensus among the landlords was that southward. The violent reaction of the North they should get 50 percent in cash and the Vietnamese Communists to the opening of these remainder in five annual installments. Some lands provides its own commentary. tenants spoke of ten annual payments with no Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 307 cash down, while others spoke of 10 to 20 per- capital could be undermined by narrowing the cent in cash and the remainder on an install- gap between landlords and the landless if not ment basis. The difficulty was that the tenants bridging it altogether. A more equitable redis- had no cash whatever, a fact which nobody tribution of land was the answer. From the contested. point of view of economic welfare, the same The land distributions were not confined answer applied, even if qualified by such addi- only to landlord-tenant circles. The idea of land tional needs as better farm techniques, develop- for the landless in Vietnam did not originate ment of experiment stations and dissemination with the Communists. In June of 1953, Presi- of the results of their work, and the indis- dent Nguyen Van Tam, with the support of the pensable farm credit. If the notoriously low chief of state Bao Dai, proclaimed a land dis- Vietnamese rice yields were to be augmented, tribution program of his own. This, in addition the incentive of owner cultivation of land was to his 15 percent rent reduction, he described important in making the best use of the factors as a "masterpiece of our agrarian reform." just mentioned. Aside from the impossibility of enforcing it These propositions, understood and accepted for reasons already stated, it was less than a by the then Prime Minister Diem, were not "masterpiece," as a summary of its main con- spoken of openly in 1955. This was partly be- tents reveals. Under the enabling ordinance 21, cause of numerous other pressing tasks and a landlord could retain a maximum of 45 partly because ordinances 2 and 7 had not yet hectares in central Vietnam and 100 hectares in gone far enough to prepare the ground for the South Vietnam if he owned land in both sec- reform phase he had in mind. But the subject tions of the country. The joker in the piece was under active consideration in official circles was that a landlord had the right to a 25 per- throughout the summer of 1956, and on Octo- cent increase for the fourth and each succeeding ber 22 ordinance 57 was promulgated and land child; since landlords with wives and con- redistribution became the official policy of the cubines had large families, the retention limit government of free Vietnam. could be watered down beyond recognition. Equally important was the lack of any pur- chase provision to make land transfer possible. VII It was left to the tenant to buy land at the prevailing market price and, in theory, with the The preamble of the ordinance states its ob- assistance of government credit. Basically, the jectives in terms of equitable distribution of credit was not available, the tenants had no land among the landless, development of agri- cash, and at the prevailing market price they cultural production, and the orientation of the could not have bought it even had they had big landlords towards industrial activities. The money. ordinance contains a number of implementing provisions. No landlord can own more than 100 hectares, VI but he may keep an additional 15 hectares of inherited land for the continuation of ancestor It remained for Ngo Dinh Diem's govern- worship and the expenses it entails; the re- ment to deal with the land distribution ques- mainder must be sold to groups specified in the tion in earnest. Diem repeatedly expressed the ordinance in the order of priority. A landlord view that widespread individual ownership of may himself cultivate only 30 hectares of the land is the condition of economic and political 100 he is permitted to retain; the other 70 stability in the countryside. He found a staunch hectares he must lease or sell. The land affected ally in his brother, Bishop Thuc, a man with by the ordinance is riceland only. The excess intimate knowledge of the work and life of holdings will be sold first of all to tenants and the peasantry and an uncompromising supporter agricultural workers who have cultivated the of peasant welfare. On the political side, it was land for two years; next in line are war veter- clear to the president that the Communist threat ans, refugees and the unemployed; but, in effect, in the villages was real and that their political the land to be divided was meant for the ten- 308 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 ants already on the land. Tenants acquiring tribunals and stiff penalties for evading the land under the reform cannot lease or mortgage provisions of the reform law are part of the it within ten years of the date of acquisition. administrative arrangement. The government was to buy land from the landlords and, in turn, resell it to the tenants VIII Since the tenants have no cash, article 14 pro- vides that they can pay for the land in six an- The ordinance laid down the general prin- nual installments. The purchaser receives a ciples of the program, and a comment on some certificate of ownership prior to his payment of them is in order. and a clear title of ownership after he con- The retention limit determines the scope of pletes his payments. The price to the tenant the reform, or the amount of land available for is determined by the amount the government distribution and the number of tenants bene- pays to the owner for the land. The price is fiting from it. With landholdings in central fixed by regional committees and approval by Vietnam seldom exceeding 10 to 15 hectares, the National Council for Agrarian Reform. The the reform, clearly and correctly, was meant for landlords are compensated in two ways: 10 South Vietnam alone. Applied there, the re- percent of the value of the purchased land is tention means that approximately 30 percent of paid in cash, the remainder in nontransferable the tenants will fall within the scope of the government bonds bearing a 3 percent interest program. The government did not feel that it rate and amortized in twelve years. However, should begin with a retention limit which the bonds can be used as legal tender for paying would eliminate Vietnam's rural middle class off debts contracted with the Agricultural Credit overnight. There was also the reasonable as- Agency as well as for land and inheritance sumption that, since landlordisin has lost a good taxes. More important, and this is one of the deal of its attraction, landlords would be in- basic aims of ordinance 57, the bonds can be clined to dispose of a good deal of the re- used for subscription to securities of any enter- mainder of their land. prises created by the state in the framework of The government was on sound ground in a program of national economic development. assuming the responsibility as buyer and seller More recent amendments have not changed the of the land. In so doing it took upon itself the tenor of this provision, all-important task of fixing land prices, a task The idea of using land bonds of this type it fulfilled with a decided bias in favor of the to help the landlords take part in a country's tenants. There is little doubt that, if land trans- industrialization has been practiced very suc- actions had been left to bargaining between the cessfully in Taiwan. There the government landlords and tenants, little if any land would controlled a number of fully operating under- have changed hands-there is historical prece- takings, and the exchange of the lands for dent to show that ordinance 57 would have government-owned shares was a simple affair. remained a paper ordinance. In Vietnam the government has offered what Payment for the land on the instalLment basis it has already in operation-industries about was a realistic approach to the tenants' lack of to be built and those contemplated. However, ready means to pay for it. The issue was industrialization there is only beginning and whether the six-year period was not too short. the changeover has not been immediately re- To this observer, a ten-year period was a more warding. sober reflection of the tenant's financial posi- With a view to administering the program, tion. It should be noted, however, that the de- the ordinances provided for the establishment bate of six versus ten years lacked one crucial . of a Council for Agrarian Reform with powers element: neither side knew what the price of broad enough to deal with all outstanding issues the land was going to be. In the final analysis, involved in implementation. There were also, the price of the land determined the feasibility in addition, provincial and local committees to of one period of payment as against the other. determine the acreage available for distribution, As events proved, the price finally set does not the fixing of land prices, the issuance of titles exceed three to four times the annual produc- to new owners, and related subjects. Agrarian tion of the land acquired by the tenant. In a Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 309 very few instances it will be slightly more, but upon the price and ability of the tenants to in many more cases a tenant will have paid for make good the payments. Productivity of the his land for the price of two annual crops. In land was a basic factor, but important also any event, even in the most extreme case, pay- was the consideration that the reform was de- ment could not exceed one-third of the output. signed for the benefit of the tenants. In all, the In determining the tenant's capacity to pay for prices fixed for the nineteen provinces of South the land, consideration was also given to the Vietnam ranged from 12,000 piasters or $170 price he received for his rice. It was assumed per hectare in the province of Binh Duong to that the tenants could discharge their obliga- 4,000 piasters or $57 per hectare in the prov- tions in six annual installments. The immediate ince of An Xuyen. Within the provinces them- problem was to create an administrative ma- selves, the respective prices could be as low as chine to go on with the task once the acreage 500 and 100 piasters, and less. for distribution had been determined and the The price of the French-owned land repre- land prices fixed. Because of a lack of trained sented a different problem. This land was also staff, lack of sufficient funds despite UsoM's subject to ordinance 57, but the owners had sizable contribution to administrative expenses, another alternative. According to an agreement and the ever-present necessity to make little do concluded between the government of France much, an agrarian reform organization com- and the government of Vietnam (October 9, parable to that of Japan or Taiwan could not be 1958) the former allocated 1,490,000,000 created. The program was further delayed by francs (U.S.$2,900,000) for the purchase of all the protracted absence of the capable new the French rice lands. This land, when finally minister of agrarian reform, recuperating from acquired, was to have been turned over to the an assassin's bullet. The inevitable obstacles and Vietnamese government as a gift. consequent delays came to an end in late 1957, The French owners had the choice of ac- and the program got off the ground in 1958. cepting the provisions of ordinance 57 or the offer of their government. They liked neither IX the one nor the other. The Vietnamese price was much more palatable to them, but the The very first task was to determine the acre- method of payment was not. Under the French age subject to distribution. This was a difficult government terms they were to receive payment task because modern Vietnam never had an in francs, deposited in France, but at a very low agricultural census and many of the village price. With the funds firmly fixed by the French records disappeared during the years of trouble. for this purchase, the average price could not The landlords were required to declare the land exceed $11 per hectare as against an average in their possession, and their statements were price of approximately $60 to $65 (at the rate then checked against whatever information the of 70 piasters to the dollar) received by a Viet- village registers contained or village officials namese landlord in cash and in bonds. recalled. The final estimate thus obtained, In late 1959 the French owners accepted the and very likely on the low side, revealed that terms of their government and the transfer of in South Vietnam a total of 2,033 landlords the land to the government of Vietnam com- possessed more than 100 hectares each, yielding menced in early 1960. As of the end of Septem- a surplus of 425,000 hectares. In addition, there ber 1960, approximately 200,000 hectares out were 430 landlords of French citizenship, of of a total of 245,000 had been formally trans- whom 280 were "pure" French. The land of ferred to the Vietnamese government. The re- these two groups subject to the reform program mainder was to follow suit by the end of the is approximately 245,000 hectares, or a grand year. total of 685,000, roughly a third of all the ten- The final disposition of this land is still being anted land in South Vietnam. deliberated, but it is quite clear that, except for The setting of land prices was virtually com- a relatively small part of this total acreage that pleted by the end of 1957. This proved to be was formerly cultivated by a French company the most crucial task, for much of the success as a unit with the most modern equipment and or failure of the transfer program depended hired labor, the land will be sold to the tenants 310 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 cultivating it now. In instances where land has able opposition from landlords despite their remained uncultivated, the government has al- seeming willingness to sell the land. This ready begun to create agricultural development "seeming willingness" resulted from their as- centers, settled by landless farmers. As in the sumption that they would be paid in a manner case of the Vietnamese landlord-owned land, more in consonance with their self-interest. This the turning over of this land to the tenants will is not the case at all. And yet, looking back at entail considerable administrative effort; but the behavior of the landlords in the past two past experience should stand the government in years, one is struck by the mildness, not to say good stead once it embarks on the redistribu- total lack of opposition. tion of this land. Little has been left of the militancy of late To date, the Ministry for Agrarian Reform 1955 when the landlords spoke as if Ngo has concentrated its rather limited means upon Dinh Diem's government were there to restore the Vietnamese land. How much has been their former privileged position. This delusion achieved? was short-lived. When the landlords submitted The process of an orderly and carefully to the rent reduction program, in effect they worked-out scheme of distributing the land acknowledged that their position had undergone among the tenants has proved to be a time- a radical change. President Diem's well-known consuming affair. The land earmarked for this statement that the land transfer was a necessary purpose had to be surveyed. Much time was social revolution for the benefit of the tenants devoted to making certain that the titles were served to disarm the landlords still further. The clear of encumbrances. The drawing up of a price they received for the land and the method title itself is not difficult, nor is the procedure of payment was far less than they expected, but of determining the amount a landlord is to re- it was still not confiscation and sizable holdings ceive for his land or making out the checks for still remained in their hands. Finally, the total the cash portion of the payment and the bonds. number of Vietnamese landlords subject to the But all these operations taken together, per- reform is only just over 2,000. While small formed by a staff not nearly commensurate with numbers of privileged individuals often exer- the scope of the undertaking, explain the slow cise great political and economic influence, this pace of carrying the program when compared is not quite the case in Vietnam. After years with those, for example, of Japan and Formosa. of civil war these privileged people had become Nevertheless, by the end of December 1960, economically weak, and politically they cut no the program had been largely completed. All great figure in the councils of Ngo Dinh of the Vietnamese land subject to transfer Diem's government. The combination of these (425,000 hectares) had been surveyed and, in circumstances goes a long way to explain the effect, set aside for distribution. Approximately landlords' acquiescence in a reform which is 300,000 hectares were already under cultivation not in their interest. by 120,000 tenants and half of them had re- The real opposition to agrarian reform was ceived titles to the land, while the landlords had provided by Radio Hanoi and the Communist received payment for about half of the land agents in the countryside. The latter have ex- the government was acquiring from them. A erted no end of pressure, including physical considerable amount of work remains to be threats and violence, to dissuade the tenanrs done; but, with the experience and training from buying land. The failure of the Commu- attained since the beginning of the implementa- nists' own so-called agrarian reform in North tion of agrarian reform and with the land fully Vietnam, culminating in an open peasant re- surveyed, there is a strong possibility that the bellion against it, is well-known to the Viet- land will be fully in the hands of the tenants namese tenants. This knowledge and the obvi- by the end of 1961. ous advantages the land transfer offered them were a stumbling block to the Communist anti- X reform propaganda. The tenants were willing to buy land under the terms of ordinance 57. It was expected that the land transfer, like There is no question, therefore, as to where the rent reduction, would meet with consider- the tenants stand on the land transfer question. Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Vietnam 311 In this respect they are as one with all the unlike other leaders of primarily agrarian and landless of Asia. The inborn desire for land underdeveloped countries, the president has not ownership, coupled with economic security and been swayed by the glittering promises of in- a heightened social status, serve to make the dustrialization as the sole panacea of Vietnam's land distribution program a significant event. problems. In placing his emphasis on agricul- The complete abolition of tenancy is neither ture, the country's real source of wealth, he has feasible nor desirable if low rentals and real indeed advocated a policy of "first things first." security of tenure can prevail. Some tenants For the village to develop its full potentiali- may prefer to become owners, but not the ma- ties, agrarian reform is not alone sufficient. Also jority. With the completion of the current pro- necessary are an extensive farm credit system; gram, two-thirds of the tenants will remain widespread utilization of chemical fertilizers; tenants even though under vastly improved restoration of the livestock population; the cre- circumstances. Those who have acquired land ation of agricultural experiment stations and an will undoubtedly stimulate the desire for owner- extension service to disseminate the results of ship among some of the tenants on the land their work; a cooperative system to strengthen retained by the landlords. This observer believes the farmer's selling and buying position; and, that the latter will dispose of some of their land surely not the least, a price policy in consonance voluntarily; the economics of a maximum rental with the legitimate interest of the country's of 25 percent plus the absence of the other biggest industry. numerous and profitable services formerly ex- The government recognizes these needs and acted from the tenants leave much to be desired has acted decisively upon some of them such as from the landlords' point of view. This will farm credit and the utilization of fertilizer and be particularly true of the absentee landlords has made a beginning in other directions. It with connections in the city in commerce or will take time, money, and hard work to trans- public service. If this assumption is correct, late all these into a productive and prosperous the government may very well consider legisla- agricultural economy. Given peace, there is no tion to speed up the process of disposal of reason to doubt the future outcome if past per- absentee-owned land. Moreover, in building the formance is any indication of the Vietnamese new state, President Diem has repeatedly laid ability to meet their problems. down the proposition that small-scale property To note this, to note the slow but sure de- ownership in general and small-scale land velopment of the land distribution program ownership in particular constitute the very and to raise the question of the future in no basis of an orderly, stable society. way minimizes the significance of the agrarian reform or of the other efforts of Ngo Dinh XI Diem's government in the countryside. It is the more noteworthy when one recalls that the The agrarian reform measures are part and government inherited little more than rural parcel of the creation of a better agricultural chaos. It is easy to find fault with this or that economy. No agrarian reform, however success- provision, the less-than-perfect administrative ful and complete, can by itself provide the an- arrangements and the enforcement of the re- swer to a sound agricultural economy, be it in forms, or to find fault with the cautious ap- Vietnam or Japan, and less so in Vietnam proach to the program of land redistribution. where for a variety of historical reasons the Within the context of a new nation struggling productivity level of peasant agriculture has re- for survival, inadequacies are inevitable and mained low. The destruction caused by a decade not surprising. It is vastly more important that of civil war has aggravated the problem. That in such conditions some of the principal reform Vietnamese agriculture has demonstrated real provisions have been implemented and others signs of recovery more recently is a tribute to are under way. the peasants and to the president's wise policy Security of tenure and rent reduction have of giving the highest priority to the rehabilita- broken the traditional, exploitative character of tion and expansion of agricultural production. Vietnam's landlordism. Here and there, mainly It is important to note in this connection that, in central Vietnam where land is scarce and 312 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 density of farm population very high, landlord- formative stage they tend to make for rural tenant relations are guided not only by the progress. provisions of ordinances 2 and 7. But even Very significant for Vietnam and the rest of there, and certainly in the south, the new ele- Southeast Asia are the methods used in effecting ments predominate. The tenants know the dif- these changes. In his efforts to deal with rural ference between 25 and 50 percent rent and problems, President Diem and his government know as well that they cannot be moved from have not resorted to force, setting class against the land at the landlord's pleasure. class, or using any of the methods used by the The land redistribution program is a logical Communists to impose their brand of agrarian- development for those areas where conditions ism. This is in striking contrast to the somber are most suitable as they are not in central realities across the 17th parallel, where for Vietnam where landlord holdings are minute nearly three years now the Communists have and tenancy relatively small. But where redis- been rectifying the "mistakes" of subduing the tribution of land is feasible, as in southern peasantry through murder and bloodshed. The Vietnam, measures to give land to the landless Viet Minh's opposition to South Vietnam's re- are being carried out and in the face of the forms is violent precisely because they are suc- unprecedented terrorism unleashed by the Com- cessful. munists beginning in early 1960. As already The chagrin of the North Vietnamese is the noted, more land will have to be distributed to greater because the non-Communist Asians can- satisfy the majority of the tenants. In the opin- not help but make comparisons between the ion of this observer, the success of the current enfranchisement of the peasantry in South Viet- phase will insure the expansion of the program nam and their enslavement in Communist Viet- after 1961 if the insecurity created by the Corm- nam. It would be idle to expect that the munists in the countryside is overcome. But achievements in South Vietnam will cause the whatever future reform measures have in store Communists to deviate from the line they have for the farmers of Vietnam, it is fair to say taken. For the rest of free Southeast Asia, how- that seven years after the country's indepen- ever, the reforms and their methods of imple- dence they are measurably better off. And not mentation carry the conviction that lasting only materially. Between the new and old condi- social improvements cannot be found at the tions of farming lie not only so many more end of a Communist gun barrel. In the company bushels of rice but also the invaluable realiza- of some other non-Communist Asian nations, tion of proprietorship for some and a sense of free Vietnam is demonstrating anew that where security on the land for all. With it goes the there is a will to redress the injustices of an feeling of independence and a spirit of equality agrarian system, a way can be found, and with- in the community. These shifts in attitude do out paying the price of the tragic upheaval not blossom overnight, but even in the present of Communist agrarianism. 39. Corporate Farm Management for Japan? The last of Ladejinsky's papers for the Vietnam years is this letter he wrote from Saigon on June 7, 1961, in response to Vice-Minister Takekazu Ogura of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Japan. This official solicitation of Ladejinsky's views, so many years after he had left Japan, testifies to the high regard in which he was still held, as his own reply testifies to his continuing interest and devotion to the causes for which he worked in Japan. The letter is substantively interesting for Ladejinsky's observations on corporate farm management and his attack on the concept that, because size is advantageous in industry, the same is true for agriculture. Corporate Farm Management for Japan? 313 I REGRET VERY MUCH that your letter of March find a way of eliminating more than half of all 20 came to my attention only ten days ago, the farm households of Japan. upon my return from a long visit in Washing- I have a strong feeling that too much empha- ton. This is the reason why I failed to write to sis is placed upon the priority of farm manage- you sooner. ment as against the firmly established reality I need hardly say that I am most touched and of land ownership. I do not believe that this can grateful to you for writing me and sending be legislated out of existence, as you yourself along the report on the currently contem- indicate in your summary. The government plated new land policies. I also appreciate the would have to resort to very drastic, compulsory reasons you cite for the needed changes and measures, which a capitalistically democratic your belief that such changes wouldn't under- country such as Japan would not be in a posi- mine the gains attained by the farmers under tion to execute without endangering the politi- the reform. cal stability of rural Japan-and of Japan as Naturally, I read the ministry's paper with a whole. the greatest interest, and parts of it I reread My real doubts about the intended new re- time and again. Having been away from Japan form lie in another direction. I am under the so long, I was unaware of the agitation in impression that the promoters of the new policy favor of the corporation type of farm manage- think that the corporate system of farm man- ment and one of its would-be consequences, agement would relieve the government of farm namely, the drastic revision of the present land subsidies, price supports, and so forth and so on. tenure system. All this came to me as a surprise This assumption is very questionable for Japan; and, believe me, my dear Mr. Ogura, that I am and, as you know, it doesn't apply even in indeed sorry that I am not in Tokyo now to countries where large-scale farm management discuss with you and your colleagues the in- is highly developed. The mistake which under- tended revision of virtually all main provisions lies this philosophy is in the thinking that the of the agrarian reform. I have reference to the laws of economic development which charac- following statement on page 43: "Points to terize industry apply equally well to agricul- be amended to the land tenure system: the ture. This is not the case, and chances are that provisions regulating land transfer control, land corporate agriculture (as well as noncorporate) retention control, strengthening of cultivating will depend upon the central government for rights, tenant rent control, etc., should be a variety of assistance and in a total amount no amended and operated leaning upon the prin- smaller than in the recent past. ciples prescribed above." This means, "To sub- In saying all of the above, I fully realize, Mr. ordinate the land ownership to the development Ogura, that I am too far away from the scene of farm management." to be in a position to offer something construc- Ever since I came to know something about tive. On the other hand, the reading of the Japanese agriculture, I have been aware of the "Fundamental Problems and Counter Measures problem presented by the farmers with a few for Agriculture" causes me to believe that, "tan" of land and of the desirability to have while remedies are in order, the proposed medi- them out of agriculture and into industry. I cine may well destroy some of the positive gains have been equally aware of the difficulty of of the past decade without at the same time solving the problem. The fact that even Japan's creating in their place a much sounder agri- phenomenal industrial development cannot cultural economy. I am heartened by the fact absorb them emphasizes even more strongly that your own concluding remarks reveal that how complex the issue is. Moreover, if I read you fully appreciate the problems inherent in correctly the "Fundamental Problems and the proposals. You are indeed correct in point- Counter Measures for Agriculture," it would ing out how hard it is "to take such compulsory appear that even farmers with one "cho" and a measures"; that in present day Japan conditions little more are not suitable candidates capable do not exist that would "deny (farmers) their of playing a role in the new agricultural econ- cultivation rights by compulsion"; and you are omny contemplated by the writers of this report. quite right in saying that the "farmers after land In that case, you are in effect called upon to reform are quite different from those before 314 THE VIETNAM YEARS, 1955-1961 land reform." I also agree with you that the un- tween agriculture and industry. Even the Soviet dersized farm management system calls for Draconian measures over a period of thirty- changes and improvements which "could not three years have not succeeded (in doing this). be expected to be carried on successfully if Finally, as I look at your report once again, left alone to the natural process." Finally, you one significant feature stands out: the sup- are certainly right when you say that the diffi- porters of "improved farm management," in- culties will be greater "in attaining agricultural cluding Dr. Tobata, whom I respect so highly, structure improvement . . . than in the case seem to brush aside the remarkably prosperous of land reform." conditions attained by the Japanese farm com- In view of all of the above, I have no doubt munity in recent years. One gets the false im- that you and your colleagues will not approach pression that the farmers are in distressed condi- the problem in the spirit that everything must tions. More than that, one not familiar with be reformed at once. As an old reformer, I current rural conditions in Japan might also would be most reluctant to do that for reasons get the impression that there is something arti- you stated so well. ficial about this prosperity, so much of it, sup- From the reading of your paper I can see posedly, at the expense of the national treasury. that nonfarn pressure to amend the most im- If so, how is one to explain the continued and portant safeguards of individual ownership is ever-rising agricultural production, the sus- probably considerable, but I am sure that this tained and rising individual investments in land pressure is of less importance than the views improvements, and the dramatic rise in capital of the farmers themselves directly affected by farm equipment? In short, how do the pro- the would-be changes. moters of "improved farm management" ex- A reduction in the number of so-called plain the altogether unprecedented moderniza- farmers who gain most of their living outside tion of Japanese agriculture in less than a farming is a sound idea if it can be brought decade? Surely the result is one of strength about with a minimum of pain. It calls for care- rather than weakness. ful deliberation and no economic punishment There is much else that I could say on the visited upon any farm or semi-farm group no subject, mainly by way of clarification of my longer considered useful. If a way is found to own ideas as a result of the reading of your eliminate the real undersized ones, prosperous report. I hope that you will not hold against Japan should pay the bill. me the raising of some questions and the voic- A "flexible" and a "free" agricultural econ- ing of some doubts about the argument in favor omy is a tempting idea, but such goals are of amending the gains of the agrarian reform hardly attainable in Japan-as elsewhere. More much too drastically. There is the danger that flexibility, yes, but the attempt to take all the they might be amended out of existence. It rigidities out of Japanese agriculture is a waste tould be a mnded fout f texisent of time. I suspect that the idea of a "free" agri- would be a sad day for Japan if the present culture is city-industry-commerce inspired and economic, political, and social attainment in the nurtured by the recent striking developments countryside were seriously impaired, not to say in Japanese industry and trade. There is the sacrificed, in the name of a new scheme of faulty thought behind it, namely, that what one questionable validity. can do in industry can be done, even if roughly, Again, I was indeed pleased to hear from you in agriculture as well. Strange as it may seem, it and you will, I am sure, forgive me the liberty reminds me of Lenin's argument that the trinity with which I chose to comment on your paper. of the combine, the tractor, and the truck would I wish to add that you may use my letter as virtually eliminate the basic differences be- you think best. IV. THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 fADEJINSKY'S WORK WITH the Ford Foundation lasted less than three years after his departure from Saigon, from the latter part of 1961 to the first part of 1964-somewhat longer if his work with the foundation is considered to date from his exploratory visit to Nepal late in 1960 while on temporary leave from his Vietnam post. This brief association nevertheless sufficed to produce a number of interesting papers, twelve in all. Four of these concern Nepal and are rather unusual among Ladejinsky's papers. They deal with a very small, remote, and extremely backward country, almost medieval in character but newly disturbed by the winds of change. The ruling elite and administration are so few and the country itself so small that the perceptive foreign observer can easily acquire an acquaintance with and a comprehension of their problems. This same close concentration brings the specialist in any given area inevitably face to face with the whole complex of problems with which it is obviously intertwined. Ladejinsky therefore concerned himself not only with problems of agrarian reform in the countryside but also with problems of general administration and institution-building, with the justification for a Ford Foundation program in Nepal, and with positive and negative aspects of Nepal's development prospects. He reported directly and most persuasively to King Mahendra early in 1962 on the need for agrarian reform and was much encouraged later that year by the king's apparent determination to proceed with the reforms recommended. Obviously discouraged by the following turn of events, he then soberly warned the king in March 1963 of the serious consequences likely to ensue if the reform effort were permitted to abort. Ladejinsky was not exclusively concerned with Nepal during his Ford Foundation connection, although that had been the original expectation. Operating first from a base in New Delhi-the Ford Foundation representative there was responsible also for overseeing the foundation's work in Nepal-and later from the foundation's regional base in Malaya, as a regional specialist he also went to the Philippines, twice to Indonesia, and .again, after a nine-year lapse, to India. All these trips found expression in letters or more formal reports (see the Chronological Bibliography). Also noteworthy, toward the end of this period, are a statement Ladejinsky made to a Conference on World Tensions early in 1964, an outstanding article on agrarian reform in Asia published in Foreign Affairs, and his classic note on land reform prepared for presentation to a conference on Productivity and Innovation in Agriculture in the Underdeveloped Countries held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the summer of 1964. Of the twelve papers, nine are presented here, two of them in truncated form. 315 316 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 40. Tenurial Conditions in Nepal A Report to King Mahendra Bir Shah Deva Ladejinsky arrived in Nepal in January 1962 and straightaway undertook a number of field trips in the Kathmandu Valley and eastern Terai to study tenurial conditions at firsthand. On February 15 he reported on his findings and recommendations in this most persuasive letter addressed directly to the king. IN JUNE OF LAST YEAR, my colleague Morton placed "in the center of the piece." There Grossman and I had the privilege of an audi- are very few countries in the world where ence with Your Majesty. During that audience 95 percent of the people in one way or an- and subsequently in a letter to Minister Shaha, other make a living from the land. Nepal I took the liberty of expressing my views about is one of these countries. the land tenure system of Nepal. I wish to re- 3. The Nepalese peasant cultivator is illiterate, call here that, while I did not then offer my but he is not ignorant. He knows that he has specific measures for altering the tenure sys- been denied his elementary rights and needs. tem, I did venture to outline a general ap- Later in this note I shall enlarge on this proach to this problem, which so gravely affects point, using specific examples from my re- Nepal. In these remarks, written after many cent experience in Nepal. Here, it is suffi- trips to the countryside in the company of cient to state that any antigovernment Basudeo Pekurel, secretary of the Agrarian Re- forces-Communist or non-Communist-- form Commission, I shall deal more specifically can readily make political capital by trans- with the difficult conditions of your farmers forming peasant attitudes from inertness and the ways in which you might improve into alertness. This has been done in coun- them. Additionally, I shall call your attention try after country, and Nepal need not neces- to the question of land revenue and to the sarily be an exception to the rule. urgent need for your government to increase 4. A government which intends to meet the this source of income. First, however, permit fundamental needs of the peasantry should me to state once more the essence of my re- initiate necessary reforms from the top marks of last June; my recent visit to your rather than wait for antigovernment ele- country and my growing knowledge of its real mients to initiate them from the bottom. problems have served not merely to validate This is not an academic proposition; experi- but to strengthen my earlier beliefs. My main ence in other countries gives added weight. points were these: to this point. 5. In a country such as Nepal, the most impor- 1. Any counsel, from whatever quarter, to de- tant requirement for dealing with the land lay dealing with the institutional agrarian tenure problem is will and determination' problems of Nepal is bad counsel. Just be- on the part of the government to proceed cause the cultivator has carried his burdens with the job. There can be no substitute for so long does not mean that he can for that. I do not minimize the inevitable stand them indefinitely. His patience might difficulties of implementing a reform which snap at a moment most unexpected. threatens landlord interests; but without 2. In any and all schemes related to your coun- the government's will and determination, try's development, the cultivator must be everything else will be writ in water. Tenurial Conditions in Nepal 317 6. The improvement of the lot of cultivators is There is a common bond between the vil- not merely a means of strengthening the po- lages almost next door to Kathmandu and the litical stability of your country. Above all, villages of far-removed Jhapa district in eastern it is a means of stimulating agricultural pro- Terai-that bond is the sheer, unadorned pov- duction and thereby helping to overcome erty of the cultivators. They suffer from all the overall stagnation of the country's econ- the disabilities one finds in the poorest rural omy. Even a cursory knowledge of agricul- sections throughout Asia: marginal, small-scale, tural productivity in Nepal leads one to con- fragmented farming and keen competition for clude that production can be increased only the landlords' acres; absentee landlordism and if the cultivators are given the incentive to intermediaries who collect rents without per- produce more. This means leaving them a forming any useful managerial functions; total greater share of what they produce, to be absence of security of tenure, accompanied by used as they see fit. This situation does not exorbitant rentals and heavy indebtedness; lack exist now. of minimum food requirements on the part of 7. Nepal is about to enter a new stage of eco- the vast majority of the cultivators; and culti- nomic development. The plan, now in the vators completely subject to the will of the making, is an expression of that. However, landlords. for the plan to enjoy even modest success, In most Asian countries, measures have al- your country's farming must be rejuvenated; ready been initiated to give the cultivating new stimulants for greater agricultural pro- peasant land of his own or a reduction in rent duction must be found. The fact is that and a guarantee that he can remain on the land nearly 80 percent of Nepal's revenue comes unmolested. The trend has been to provide from agriculture. The plan calls for in- the landless cultivator not only with obliga- creased revenue, since no foreseeable amount tions but with rights as well. I regret to say, of foreign aid can possibly meet all the Your Majesty, that in the entire course of my anticipated requirements. The only source field investigation in Nepal I did not find one available to the government for this increase instance of such efforts to aid the peasant. On in revenue is agriculture-but on the con- the contrary, what I found in case after case dition that the currently exploited and was extreme poverty emanating from condi- poverty-ridden cultivators can obtain condi- tions which, in effect, prevent the peasants tions under which they can produce more from enjoying any significant share of the fruits and enjoy somewhat better living standards. of their labor. This is not possible now, and, as long as In the villages around Kathmandu, where this condition persists, I seriously question the land is scarce and competition for it in- whether the contemplated economic devel- tense, rentals are two-thirds of the gross crop. opment of the country can succeed. This does not include other imposts, including Your Majesty, my stay in your country personal services and loans at usurious rates which began this January has greatly reinforced levied upon the tenants by landlords. The peas- these beliefs of mine, During this period, I ants I met felt strongly about their difficult have made a number of trips into the country- conditions even if their expression was not se always articulate. I found that some peasants do side, in the Kathmandu Valley and in eastern have a few ropanis of land of their own, but this Terai. I have talked with numerous officials, is seldom enough to provide them with any landlords, and cultivating farmers in the search more than the customary meager measure of for a closer, firsthand knowledge of existing living. Most farmers I encountered had alto- farm conditions. My sample is not as exhaus- gether too little land and were compelled to tive as it might be; but it is sufficient, never- rent somebody else's land to meet their barest theless, to convince me that your country's needs. Others had no land of their own whatso- agriculture is in a state of retardation and that ever, and the peasant who spoke of his dream your peasants are in a state of latent discon- to die with a little land of his own voiced the tent-problems which can be neglected only at thought of all the landless. the risk of graver developments. Despite the enacted legislation of the Land 318 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 Act of 1957 and other measures talked about tion to say that we found there one of the very in Kathmandu, most farmers were virtually worst land tenure systems in existence in any ignorant of these measures. It would appear part of Asia. that there has been no attempt either to fa- Consider the following. We were fortunate miliarize the cultivators with the provisions in making our trip at a time when the tenants of the Land Act or to enforce any of its provi- bring the crop to an open barn assigned by sions. For this reason, reference to Your Maj- the landlord. The crop is threshed there, esty's government's efforts drew no response gathered into heaps, and divided between land- from the peasants of the area near Kathmandu. lords and tenants. We visited many such places, Eastern Terai is indeed far removed from and from watching and talking with the people Kathmandu. The agricultural economy there gathered in the barns we were able to get a is quite dissimilar from farming in the reasonably good idea of what the conditions Kathmandu Valley. It is probably the richest of tenancy are like. When a tenant or landlord agricultural section of your country, producing is asked about the rate of rent, the invariable surpluses of rice, jute, and cane. The holdings reply is "50 percent of the crop." This "50 are much larger and they are counted not in percent of the crop" is very important be- ropanis but in bighas, one bigha containing cause it is the basic provision of the Land Act 16 ropanis. Holdings of 20, 50, 100, and even of 1957, an act intended to improve the condi- 1,000 bighas and more are no exception; the tion of the landless farmer. What, in reality, shorthand hoe gives way to the bullock-drawn is this 50 percent of the crop? plow, and the pressure on the land is not In eastern Terai (as in the Kathmandu Val- nearly as intense as in the Kathmandu Valley. ley), all the landlord contributes is the land. And yet Mr. Sharma and I found conditions in Everything else for raising the crop is furnished Terai bordering on slavery. by the tenant; it is even the tenant's duty to In an area with much land and relatively deliver the landlord's share to a place of the sparse population, one might have expected to latter's choice. If one adds up the cost of the find a preponderance of owner cultivators. The bullocks, implements, and seed-not to men- reality is the very opposite of the expectation. tion the farmer's labor-the supposed fifty- In more than a dozen instances, we found that fifty sharing of the crop is more fiction than the overwhelming majority of the cultivators reality, heavily weighted in favor of the land- own no land at all. We happened to come lord who is merely a collector of rent. But across two villages where one man, in each there is more to it than that. case, owned all the land; the farmers living In eastern Terai, for example, the tenant there were poor tenants with absolutely no must borrow seed from the landlord whether rights in the land. With no available data for he needs it or not. For this he pays 100 percent eastern Terai as a whole, it is impossible to interest. When he borrows a pair of bullocks, determine with accuracy the ratio of land he must pay in rice; and the same is true when ownership to tenancy. However, on the basis he borrows money from the landlord. What of our observations, it is reasonable to say that all this means was demonstrated to us by a three-fourths of the farm population owns no tenant in one of the barns who had threshed 80 land. maunds of paddy. The division was not 40 Tenancy as an institution is not necessarily maunds to the landlord and 40 maunds to the bad. There are countries in Asia and in Europe tenant. Instead, it went like this. Having bor- where renting somebody else's land is a sound rowed 10 maunds for seed, the tenant paid 20 economic institution, profitable to both tenant inaunds to the landlord because of the 100 and landlord. This, unfortunately, is not the percent interest rate. The remaining 60 maunds case in eastern Terai, just as it is not the case were reduced by 5 maunds for borrowed bul- in the Kathmandu Valley. In eastern Terai locks. Since the tenant had also borrowed with its big holdings and relatively smaller Rs8O, at a 25 percent interest rate, RsO0 were pressure on the land, the situation is surely as deducted as 13 maunds of rice, leaving a total bad as it is in the Kathmandu Valley-if not of 42 mnaunds to be divided equally between worse. In fact, Your Majesty, it is no exaggera- the landlord and tenant, or roughly 21 maunds Tenurial Conditions in Nepal 319 to the tenant out of a crop of 80 maunds. With invest in the land. But they don't. As pure and variations, this example could be repeated by simple rent collectors they are satisfied with citing probably as many tenants as were their large share of the crop and see no need gathered at any barn of eastern Terai. to invest capital to raise the productivity of The ecoonomic consequence of this was the land. The cultivators are too poor to invest made clear by all tenants and, on several occa- anything, even if they wanted to. But even sions, by frank landlords. Said the landlords, the very few who might make some invest- "The tenants are often getting no more than ment would be foolhardy to do so simply be- the rice straw." This is probably true in some cause the increased production would go pri- instances, and even in the majority of cases the marily to the landlord. tenants seldom have enough grain left for Your Majesty, I wish to call your attention sufficient food from crop to crop. Their bowls to one more deplorable consequence of the of rice are never full, and borrowing grain for existing tenure system and the submerged food is nearly universal. The same applies to condition of the cultivator. In the Kathmandu nonfood needs. The farmers we met marching Valley as in eastern Terai, land is being to Assam, some eight days distance, in search bought and sold. I found that virtually all the of work were just another result of the so- sellers are peasants with small holdings while called fifty-fifty division of the crop. the buyers are landowners with considerable Under the circumstances, perpetual indebted- holdings. As the poverty and indebtedness of ness and total dependence upon the landlord the cultivator increase, the forced sale of land and his whims are a natural consequence. A is inevitable. And this is the practice. bargaining position for the tenant in relation In meeting after meeting with the peasants, to the landlord is out of question. Additional the same story was told. Many of the farmers exactions of personal services to the landlord I talked with started out as freeholders of at are also inevitable and much in evidence. And least some of the land they cultivated; in recent finally, failure to comply with conditions over years many of them have been compelled to which the tenant is no master means eviction part with some or all of their land to meet from the land. The tenant is forever mindful debts or satisfy immediate requirements. This of the dreaded expression, "ta-ta," which stands is a trend which will have to be arrested-if for the landlord's notice of eviction from the not reversed-for the result is an exploitative rented land. agrarian system based on a mass of farm All of this creates agricultural stagnation, or, laborers with no stake in the land and no stake to put it another way, low productivity. I in society. The economics of this development asked tenants and landlords whether they use are self-evident for the state as well as for the any farm practices other than the traditional individual. But not only the economics-the ones. Judging from their responses, I have the political dangers to the state are equally self- impression that practices such as better seed, evident. better irrigation facilities, utilization of ferti- This note is not intended to present a set of lizers, and the like are not practiced at all. But detailed measures for rectifying the situation aside from this, it would also appear that the I have described; it is the work of the Royal very idea of using such practices is not part of Commission on Agrarian Reform to do just the mental makeup of either landlords or ten- that. In fact, the remarks that follow are based ants. on the premise that this time the commission In the final analysis, this results in under- will face the land tenure problem with all the production, backwardness of the entire agricul- urgency it deserves, that its recommendations tural economy, extreme poverty of the culti- and enforcement power will go far enough to vators, and great losses to the state as a whole. ease the condition of the cultivator in fact and One does not have to be a reform partisan to not merely on paper. recognize that present land tenure conditions More specifically, the commission should are at the bottom of this situation. The land- move to remedy the two worst evils of the lords who, as I shall note later, pay only nominal Nepalese land tenure system: insecure tenancy land revenue to the state have the means to rights and unregulated rents. The Land Re- 320 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964' form Act of 1957 was a step in the right di- groups, encounters two obstacles-technical rection, but this time I hope that 50 percent and political or ideological. In Nepal with the rental will not be its basic provision. As I have administration weak not only in the center but already noted, the 50 percent rental rate is in the districts and villages as well, the tech- unreal, since tenants in fact pay more than half nical difficulties are striking. To overcome of the crop. On the basis of my observations, them, one of the best methods available is to the new rental rate should not exceed one-third carry out a cadastral survey of the land which of the gross produce of the main crop. As my will pinpoint the real ownership of the various observations indicate, even such a rental would, holdings. This, as nothing else, would serve in effect, exceed the limit of "one-third of the to separate, so to speak, the sheep from the main crop." goats, revealing the true relationship to the I am in no position to predict the commis- land among the groups in any given village. sion's future recommendations on security of The importance of such work has been un- tenure, but in this regard I feel that the pro- derstood for a number of years, and some dis- visions of the Land Reform Act of 1957 are tricts have already been surveyed with gratify- quite sound and are worth repeating. Tenancy ing results. It is most unfortunate, however, rights were to be given to any tenant who that the government has left the cadastral cultivated a holding for one year; eviction of survey starving for both men and money. a tenant was prohibited as long as he regularly Whereas an estimated six to seven hundred paid the stipulated rent; tenancy rights were to people are needed for the job, only a hundred be inheritable and salable (according to an or so are actually employed and at a salary amendment of 1959) without the consent of much too low (Rs2 a day) either to attract new the landlord; and, finally, there was to be recruits or to keep the already trained workers compilation of a record of tenants protected on the job. There are already three training under the law so that tenants would have schools (Kathmandu, Birgunj, and Biratnagar) documentary title to the land they cultivate. for these workers; and the government should The last is a most important provision. With- now move to strengthen these schools and the out it the landlords' reluctance to provide their entire service, giving it the broadened func- tenants with titles and, by the same token, with tions and authority suggested by E. Himsworth, receipts for the payment of rents will never advisor, United Nations mission to Nepal, in be overcome. his important "A Report on the Fiscal System Your Majesty, my proposal does not suggest of Nepal." redistribution of land among the landless. I am Even the understaffed and underpaid cadas- cognizant of the importance of giving land to tral survey has already made a significant con- the landless; in the long run it makes for the tribution. The "new" land and new sources of soundest possible economic, political, and so- revenue to the state which it discovered have cial arrangement in agriculture. And in the introduced some measure of order into a seem- long run this will have to be done. However, ingly chaotic picture. But for the job to be for reasons peculiar to Nepal's medieval land done well and expeditiously, the government tenure relationships, it is not timely to deal must infuse new life into the service. The with that problem now. I urge, therefore, the workers must be treated as a truly important application and enforcement of the minimum group, mobilized to perform heroically in time remedial measires outlined by the Land Re- of emergency. Failure to do this can be justly form Act of 1957 with the amended rental interpreted as a deliberate attempt to prevent rate I have just mentioned. The real problem the application of effective land reform meas- is one of enforcement. Provisions have not ures as well as to obstruct the much needed been enforced in the past, and the problem of effort to increase land revenue. land tenure in Nepal is precisely where it was Bolstering the cadastral survey is the prin- more than ten years ago when the subject first cipal technical measure needed to enforce the came up for consideration. application of land tenure reforms. But im- Enforcement of agrarian reform legislation, portant though it is, it alone will not be suffi- which requires concessions by the landowning cient. In an ideal arrangement Nepal would Tenurial Conditions in Nepal 321 have a well-organized and active central and programs of this sort. The tendency is to wait local land administration. But this condition until it is too late; and it is against this state does not exist, and it would be a disservice to of affairs, Your Majesty, that I must speak out. the reform efforts to wait until such an ar- After four visits to Nepal I have come to rangement has been made. The two are never believe that the technical problem is being used quite aligned in any case, even in those coun- to conceal the problem that really matters- tries which do have a well-organized adminis- the unwillingness of the landlords to make trative machinery. Even in countries with any concessions to the just and immediate highly organized administrative structures as, needs of the tenants. The landlords are una- for example, Japan and Taiwan, the execution ware that the status quo, based on the poverty of land reforms had to be entrusted to the of the great majority of cultivators, can no peasants themselves through village committees longer endure. I cannot help but feel that this where majority vote vested power in the land- entails a risk not only for the landlords but, less farmers. This proved to be the prime more important, for the welfare of Nepal itself. mover of successful execution of the land re- The winds of new ideas are bound to affect forms. your landless tenantry, and what are basic de- There is no reason why Nepal should not mands today are likely to become minimal de- utilize this well-tried method. The ready charge mands tomorrow. that the peasants are illiterate is true. But peas- Not all the soil of Nepal is equally fertile, ants are not ignorant. They know village con- but in at least one respect its fertility is at a ditions and are all too aware of who owns or peak. Because of the situation of the culti- doesn't own what land. Even well-intentioned vators, there is now most fertile ground for the enforcement officials can be misled about exist- seed of any individual or group that intends to ing village problems; resident farmers cannot- make political capital out of your farmers' unless they are in the pay of the landlords. But struggle for bare existence. The fact that this if the peasant has your government's support, it has not happened yet does not mean it could is in his interest not to barter away his gains. not happen-and sooner rather than later. It stands to reason, therefore, that the Nepalese Your Majesty, the landlords of Nepal are landless, as other Asian landless have already only human and it is understandable that they done, will rise to the occasion and force proper wish to retain the privileges they have enjoyed application of the new security of tenure pro- for so many years. But the time has come to visions. admit that the landlords' interests are contrary I shall not, at this point, enumerate the de- to the welfare of the great mass of your people tails of creating a Land Tenure Administration and for the well-being of your country as a as an autonomous body within the Ministry of whole. It seems obvious to me that the time has Agriculture. This is the overall administrative come to end paper reforms. Indeed, the time mechanism which must be created if the ten- has come for meaningful reforms meant to be ants are in fact to attain security of tenure. I effectively enforced. When you consider the propose to discuss these matters personally and intensity of the peasants' longing for land, the in detail with the Royal Commission on Agrar- measures now proposed to improve his condi- ian Reforms. tion are modest. This program is the minimum As I write this, I am fully aware of the tech- that should be offered to the peasant and ac- nical, administrative problems of enforcing the cepted by the landlords, for the chances are legislation. I know as well as anyone that it is that further delays will see the peasant clam- particularly difficult to create such instrumen- oring for land redistribution rather than for talities in Nepal. However, I firmly believe security of tenure. The landlords of Nepal that in Nepal the difficulties are more political would do well to ponder this realistically. and ideological than technical. In Nepal as in Even if the Royal Commission on Agrarian some other countries, land reforms have been Reform makes the right recommendations and delayed not because of ignorance of the mecha- prepares the necessary draft legislation, it still nisms but because vested interests, wedded to remains for Your Majesty's government to leave the status quo, have no interest whatsoever in no doubt in anybody's mind-either landlord's 322 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 or tenant's-that it intends to enforce the legis- 20 to 25 percent of the crop, but in recent lation regardless of what opposition comes years it has ranged from less than 1 to 6 from what quarter. This demonstration of will percent. All the land assessment records we and determin2ation by your government is the examined told the same story. This is one of primary and indispensable precondition of any the lowest land rates known, typical of an effort to improve the lot of the landless. Fail- underdeveloped country. Let me inquire into ing that, the technical difficulties will, as in some of the causes for this situation. the past, become insurmountable. On the other In theory, assessments are fixed in kind, but hand, with your government's position crystal they are actually paid in cash, based on agri- clear and well publicized, the technical prob- cultural product prices of decades ago. This lems will be less important and enforcement means that assessments have failed to keep much easier. With these thoughts in mind, I pace with the rising value of agricultural prod- express my sincere wish and hope that under ucts, especialiy after the First and Second Your Majesty's guidance the long overdue World Wars. This is true also for assessments measures to help the landless will become a which have all along been fixed in cash; they, reality. I hope this comes out not merely as an too, were made on the basis of prevailing prices aid to the landless but as a means to a wider of agricultural products at the time the settle- purpose-to stimulate new productive forces mnent was made, and have never been changed. in the village, which is the beginning of all In short, Nepal is a striking example of wisdom in any development scheme for Nepal. the weakness of a land tax tied to assessments Your Majesty, during our trips into the based on productivity, which take no account countryside we also focused our attention on of the changes in the market price of a com- the question of land revenue. This was natural modity. Moreover, while cash tax payments for at least two reasons: (a) the financial rela- have remained unchanged, rents and other ex- tionship of the landowner to the tenant on the actions by landlords have continued to in- one hand and that of the landowner to the state crease. To cite two cases. In Gamcha village in on the other and (b) the urgent need of the the Kathmandu Valley, the owner of Pota government to increase its revenue. Both (a) Birta land pays RsO.50 per ropani. The same and (b) are interrelated, and I would like to land yields 6 mnaunds of rice, or a rental of 4 take this opportunity to share with you my maunds. The market value of the rental is principal observations on this problem. Rs70 and the land tax to the government is Land revenue in Nepal in 1960-61 ac- thus under one percent of the value of the counted for over Rs28 million, or 24 percent rental and much less in relation to the value of your country's total revenue. This repre- of the total crop. In the village of Katanje, near sented the single most important source of rev- the city of Bhaktapur, the highest land tax for enue. In absolute terms, the amount of land first class Raikar land is Rs6.52 per ropani. In revenue has not changed in the past decade, this instance the tax paid to the government although revenue from other sources has in- is just 6 percent of the total value of the crop creased. Without elaborating the details of how per ropani. Eastern Terai presents numerous land revenue assessments are fixed, it is suffi- similar examples; in many cases the land tax cient to say that the system has developed over accounts for no more than 2 percent of the the years in a confused and haphazard way. value of the crop. The inevitable answer to the The system totally lacks uniformity and this, question of who loses and who gains is obvi- coupled with an archaic method of collecting ous: the landowner or the taxpayer is the land taxes, has created a maze in which only primary gainer while the government is the the most careful student can find his way. principal loser. Whatever the method of assessment and col- Your Majesty, this loss has great relevance lection, one overwhelming impression after our to the present financial needs of Nepal. The talks with the landowners is that the land tax country is entering a stage which calls not only is so small that it constitutes only a small por- for foreign aid but, above all, for the mobiliza- tion of the value of the crops produced. The tion and maximization of its own revenue re- land tax originally was meant to be equal to sources. The national treasury is seriously de- Tenurial Conditions in Nepal 323 pleted and the mounting capital requirements of a development which has for too long been for the plan under consideration must be se- unchecked. The land is the wealth of Nepal and cured now. An increase in revenue from do- must, therefore, yield a maximum return to mestic sources is imperative. I have already your government. This land, be it Birta or mentioned that Nepal cannot expect to meet its ex-Birta, Raiker or Guthi, belongs primarily budgetary deficit and its financial needs for to the state. Does it not follow, then, that the economic development from foreign sources government has the right and obligation to tax alone, however generous they may be. The the land to secure greater revenue for the need to raise revenue from internal sources is pressing needs of the country? I think it does, surely as true of Nepal as of other more highly and particularly now when the tax rates have developed countries in Asia, in Europe, and become nominal not only in absolute terms but in North America. Furthermore, the volume of also in comparison to what they were supposed foreign aid will depend on how successfully to represent when they were originally fixed. Nepal taps its own revenue potentialities. Un- Your Majesty, even if the cultivated land der these circumstances, the land tax, so grossly of Nepal were not virtually the property of the underassessed, is perhaps the only source of state, the right of the state to tax it remains revenue which can be tapped easily and quickly valid, as valid as its right to tax any source of to produce a substantial increase in income. wealth. In Nepal, the main source of wealth Until now, your government's policy has is the land. The government has a right and a been to avoid an increase in the land tax as- duty to use some of that wealth in the form of sessment. Instead, it has relied on assessing new an increased land tax, both for its short- and land that comes into cultivation or assessing long-term requirements. And, it seems to me, cultivated but untaxed land discovered by the this is especially true because revenue for both cadastral survey. This technique, although use- of these requirements is in woefully short ful, is not a sufficient substitute for a general supply. increase in the tax on land already cultivated, I am aware, Your Majesty, that the effective an increase that would double the current land implementation of these proposals is bound to tax revenue. The Royal Commission on Taxa- become a political issue. Well publicized, effec- tion and Birta Abolition spoke out in 1961 tively enforced land tenure reform and a sig- against the increase in land tax rates prin- nificant increase in the land tax will rouse the cipally on the ground that "for a long time the opposition of strong vested interests. Further- people have been accustomed to paying taxes more, I am equally aware that it is easier for at the present level." This is hardly sound rea- me to formulate these problems than it is for soning for a country aspiring to change. Even your government to resolve them. But as I more important, there are compelling reasons ponder the complex problems of your country, why the state should reassess the land tax to I can see no alternative course of action. Nepal o wmust choose between progress and stagnation, c with the neds of the cntry and and I know that your government will choose with the capacity of the landowners to a the way that leads to progress and the elfare Over the years those who pay land tax have of the great mass of your poverty-submerged continuously profited by paying the govern- cultivators. This is a problem which permits no ment a nominal tax while at the same time delay. To hesitate is merely to invite greater extracting maximum rents from their tenants. difficulty at a later time; and I hope, in view They thereby exploited both tenants and gov- of this, that one can look forward to your gov- ernment. To redress this situation by raising ernment's earnest and unswerving efforts to the land tax and reducing rents is not synony- implement a meaningful reform of the land mous with dispossessing owners from the land. tenure system and a sound reorganization of Rather, it is nothing more than the correction land taxes. 324 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 41. India after the China Border Clash Ladejinsky had stopped twice briefly in India in October 1962 on his way to and from Nepal. In a letter dated November 14, written to a Ford Foundation official in New York from Kuala Lumpur, he made some observations about the changes in political climate which had resulted from the border clashes with China. These and related observations are worth recording here. ... I WAS IN INDIA to and from Nepal, but a bad smell of corruption. It is fair to sum up that was before the day. I expect to revisit that the normally Indian disruptive manifesta- India (and Nepal) before long and I can tions have been assuming ominous proportions. hardly wait. My impression from this far a In short, the ever-present elements which tend distance is that the border hostilities have to divide India have made themselves much done India an incalculable amount of good- more felt than those tending to unite the coun- and not because Menon is no longer in power. try. Hence the thought that the relative-- Looking back and only partly benefiting from though temporary-internal peace attained by hindsight, it is clear that unless an all-national, India via Chinese violence is indeed a blessing. unifying cause entered the picture, India was I am glad that Abe Rosenthal is reporting in danger of being torn apart by the internally from India now,' and I hope that in time he divisive elements. Little of this has come will rise to his customary excellence, probing through the world press, but the fact is that in into what ails India. It has been my feeling the past year or so Hindus have rioted against all along that for some years now reporters, Muslims and vice-versa; Sikhs have fasted diplomats, and official and nonofficial aid givers against Hindus and vice-versa; non-Brahmins have been preoccupied with India's various have threatened violence to Brahmins; Bengalis economic plans to the exclusion of much else have fought Assamese; North Indian speakers and vital that lies below the surface and is not have burnt English newspapers, and south called "planning." The Indians (I don't mean India non-Hindi speakers have acted similarly the people) have gotten away with it, and, in toward Hindi papers; an influential party in helping them to do this, we haven't done the the south would like to see the south secede country a good turn. I do not wish to raise my from the rest of India, while Maharashtra blood pressure to a bursting point and I shall state has a border dispute with Mysore state as end on this even though it calls for a lot of if the two are foreign entities. In addition to elaboration and detailization. I am sure you get the normal clashes of religion against religion the point. and caste against caste, there are the relatively new developments such as the rather nasty penchant for money grubbing overlayed with 1. For the New York Times (Ed.}. Visit to the Philippines 325 42. Visit to the Philippines Late in December 1962 Ladejinsky visited the Philippines. In this letter of January 17, 1963, to Walter Rudlin, the Ford Foundation representative in Kuala Lumpur, Ladejinsky reports on his visit there. The report is concerned, at the outset, with his observations at the Inter- national Rice Research Institute and the Los Bafios Agricultural College (sections omitted here). Then, typically, he moves once again into the field, interviewing farm tenants in the important rice-growing Pampanga province, engaging in discussions with key officials about basic problems, and going swiftly to "the root of the matter"-what the country needs to do and what kind of help the Ford Foundation might try to extend. UPON MY RETURN FROM MANILA, Bangkok, and I have some reading knowledge of the and Saigon, I conveyed to you something of my country. This time, however, I looked at it pro- impressions of the trip. In the following para- fessionally. In the process I visited, first of all, graphs my sole attention is centered on the the International Rice Research Institute, Los Philippines. I do this partly for the sake of a Bafios Agricultural College, and the University record of a visit but, more importantly, be- of the Philippines and talked with the leaders cause of the foundation's growing preoccupa- of these institutions and some of the teaching tion with the country. The need to enlarge our staff. I followed this up by a trip to Pampanga knowledge about problems directly affecting in search of some firsthand information on our work in the Philippines is too obvious to rural conditions in one of the most important merit comment; but there is also a need to keep rice areas of the country. The information in mind problems which at first glance may gathered has served as a main point of my dis- appear to affect our work only indirectly. In cussions with a number of leading Filipinos in the Philippines the latter proved to be my public life. main concern. The Philippines Pampanga Visit I arrived there on the eve of the Christmas- The experience at Los Bafios and the inquiry New Year season, a very unpropitious time. into PACD1 had left me with one outstanding I did not realize that this season of the year impression, namely, that the concentration on in the Philippines is in one respect very much community development partakes of a move, like the New Year season in Old China when even if an unconscious one, "to buy our way most of everything comes to a standstill. Seeing around reform," and "not to rock the boat," an people normally in Manila was difficult, if not inevitable development if basic institutional impossible, and waiting around became a time- and technical changes long overdue in rural consuming business. Nevertheless, I have talked Philippines were to take place. Whether the to a sufficiently representative group of people time has come not to buy ourselves around and seen enough to make the trip worthwhile. I am not a stranger to the Philippines; my first visit goes back to 1948. I have repeatedly 1. [Presidential Assistance for Community De- visited the country since then, even if briefly, velopment.] 326 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 reform and to rock the boat were the ines- one had heard about a 70-30 division of the capable questions of the above exercise. In crop (70 percent to the tenant and 30 to the search of an answer to these questions, there landlord), but neither he nor any of the others was only one thing to do-a firsthand look at practiced it. What prevails is the traditional the countryside and talks with farmers. And 50-50 or 55-45, with all cash or in-kind ex- there I went in the company of Joe Domingo, a penditures equally shared. There was nothing knowledgeable collaborator of Milton Barnett's really new in the rediscovery of what is well of CECA at the University of the Philippines. known in the Philippines: the enabling ten The Pampanga province is one of the most ancy legislation, of which there is a good deal, important rice centers of the Philippines, grow- has never left the statute books. There are ex- ing one rice crop a year as is customary in the ceptions, but these merely prove the rule. One Philippines on good soil. When asked why must confess, too, that we didn't spend too only one crop, the answer is simple: lack of much time dealing with the obvious, for which water and absence of irrigation facilities. "Yes," we were well prepared upon leaving Manila. a farmer told us, "four years ago the U.S. aid Of greater interest to us was a question we mission put through some canal ditches, but raised with every farmer we encountered: in the past two years we have been getting "What do you sell and what do you buy?" Be- out of the canals more sand than water." The fore the fairly obvious answer is given, it result is that a farmer works four or five months should be pointed out that biggest tenant we a year; with virtually no industries in the area, interviewed rented five hectares, while some of he is idle the rest of the year. In the course of the others rented from five down and as little the day we talked to about eight small groups as one hectare. The tenant with five hectares, of farmers, and not one of them was an owner speaking fairly good English, spelled out the cultivator. The land of Pampanga being 90 to arithmetic of his economic position without 95 percent tenanted, the explanation is obvi- hesitation. ous. Worthy of note, too, is that Pampanga He had just gathered his harvest, and we was the center of the Huk (Communist) fight were leaning against the results of his labor-- against the established government, and it is a large stack of sheaves of rice, containing here that the late President Magsaysay first some 200 cavans2 of rice, not too bad for the earned his spurs and fame. So much for the area and better than the national average of background. 27 cavans per hectare. His selling and buying The peasants talked readily about their con- depended upon the distribution of the crop, ditions, and from the very first answers to our and here is the way it went. No 70-30 division question it became apparent that a chart on rural here; instead, the traditional one-half goes to aid agencies in Manila or Los Bafios doesn't the landlord, another 15 cavans to the land- necessarily reflect their activity in the field. This lord for the tenant's share of the cost of ferti- appeared to be the case among the peasants of lizer. We must note here that, since the tenant Communist-affected Pampanga province, or has neither cash nor security with which to certainly the part of the province we picked at buy his fertilizer from the government-owned random for our on-the-spot look and see. They, National Rice and Corn Administration, the as pointed out elsewhere, knew nothing of landlord buys it at 8.50 pesos a bag and charges PACD and just as little about other agencies. the tenant 12 pesos for the same bag. Another In fact, they were very much on their own deduction not determined yet goes to a one- with all the woes that come from small frag- hectare tenant who has been helping out dur- mented fields, lack of water, underemployment ing the rush season. In all, our tenant figured of land and labor, land tenure problems, farm that he would wind tip the season with 60 to 65 credit problems, slow dissemination of known cavans, which equals approximately his basic technology, "lack of civic conscience and na- food and seed requirements. He had little to tional discipline," as well as many another sell and little to buy. He does sell a few cavans disability. Since they were all tenants, we touched upon the ABC's of tenancy legislation. Most of them were totally ignorant of such; 2. One cavan equals 95 pounds of rough rice. Visit to the Philippines 327 of rice and an occasional product of the home- expendable income per family per year is be- stead, for he must buy salt, rock-bottom items tween 100 to 125 pesos (U.S.$25 to $30)." The of clothing for himself and the family, and second point he made was that, while the small such. What this rough-and-ready accounting owner cultivators are better off than the ten- points to is that for all practical purposes he ants at the bottom of the heap, they are just as is not a participant in the economic market, forgotten a lot as the tenants. Finally, and by and surely the same applies to his fellow ten- his own very rough estimate, he was telling me ants with mostly less than 5 hectares. Again, that perhaps "half of the rural population" is as in the case of the prevailing tenancy ar- hardly on the fringes of the national economy. rangements, except to witness its presence, we He added that the multitude of peasants he had made no new discoveries. A Philippine study in mind adds next to nothing to the gross on "The Structure and Present Conditions of national product in the sense that they and the Agriculture" has this to say on this point: country as a whole stand to benefit from their "Many farm families live on the fringes of efforts. The scope of the problem was indeed the market economy, add little to the national news to me, and I couldn't forbear from telling product, and lack income and purchasing Mr. Perez that, as I listened to him, the funda- power for living customers in a developing mentally richly endowed Philippines reminded economy. The question is, can economic de- me of the more depressed areas of India. velopment afford to bypass agriculture, the sector that employs two out of every three laborers?" This is the question, and it relates to Talks with Other Leaders the foundation's talked-about assistance in the and Suggestions economic development field in the Philippines I shall return to it in subsequent paragraphs. There is a vast literature in the Philippine on the poverty of its farm population, on the rea- sons for its technological backwardness, on the Talk with Mr. Perez demoralizing effects of its tenancy, and on what is to be done about it. The "must be dones" I mentioned earlier that the condition of non- propounded by scholars, technicians, and poli- participation in the economic market was not ticians over the years make a long and impres- really a new discovery. What was news to me sive list. And yet, as Dean Umali sums it up, was the magnitude of that condition, and this "Most of our rice farmers are still chained to came out in a discussion of my experience in primitive farming methods." One might add Pampanga with the Acting Minister of Fi- that half of the cultivated land and 40 percent nance, Roderigo Perez. He was the right man of peasants are chained also to tenurial condi- to talk to. Young, energetic, capable, of very tions which spell out even less incentive than modest means, and "with the heart in the right the prevailing technical methods alone en- place," according to all who know him. He is gender. The questions raised by rural poverty of the Magsaysay breed, deeply concerned with in the Philippines are still to be answered, and rural problems, a man who spent two years on in considering them one thing is evident: a twalking trip through the islands in search Since almost everything has been said already of information and ideas on how to "uplift" the on "what" to do, the questions "who" should rural folks. take the initiative in unchaining the farmers When his phone didn't ring, and it rang from their present state and "how" this is to frequently and chiefly on the subject of "my be done loom larger than ever. thieves in the Customs Bureau and how to re- I discussed these matters with a number of strain them," he delivered himself of a number people in Manila, notably Vice-President of observations. First of all, he tried to assure Pelaez; Sixto Roxas, director-general of the me that the countryside I visited was one of Economic Implementation Agency; Dr. Virata, "relative affluence." "Why," said he, "I know vice-president of the University of the Philip- of numerous sections of the country where pines; and Dean Umali; and I touched on a conditions are much worse and where the total number of points. They were not new to this 328 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 select group of intellectuals but disturbing just up dangerously flammable social material which the same. And I meant to disturb them as a might easily be ignited by the "other side." The possible prelude to (a) raising the agrarian mute peasant becomes a raging "beast," and the issue into a national issue and (b) to recog- jacquerie is not far to seek. I did not have to nizing let alone accepting the proposition that search the world for pertinent examples; I the current preoccupation with economic de- merely pointed to the home product, the velopment has little validity unless there is an Philippine-bred Huks, and the long and bloody overall scheme in which agricultural problems struggle to eliminate them from the country- in their broadest sense are treated with at least side. as much concern as industry and commerce. Whatever community development, farm Among the points I stressed was, to begin credit, or extension may or may not have done, with, the hopeless outlook of peasants we talked the evidence is that to date little has been to. The absence of a glimmer of hope that con- added that might serve the peasantry as a point ditions might be better was too obvious to of departure for economic incentive and self- leave unremarked. If Mr. Perez is right that enrichment. Every innovation leading to in- the outlook of the peasants in other parts of proved practices, even the tried-and-tested the country is even more dismal, so much the high-yielding seed varieties, calls for risk and worse for the country as a whole. The remark investment on the part of the peasant, and the of a peasant that in Manila "they talk, talk, and barrios are not geared to that. With immediate do nothing" needs not to be taken idly, and food, clothing, and shelter needs being domi- no array of well-meaning agencies can con- nant, there can be hardly any investment on vince him to the contrary. I stressed that such or outside the land. What is true of Mr. Perez's a poverty-induced state of mind doesn't go description of the small owner cultivator ap- hand-in-hand with "self-help" as means to plies to the tenant in even a more extreme rural well-being. Corollary to this was the degree. A tenant in prevailing Philippine con- point that the central feature of a poverty- ditions would act as an irrational economic ridden community is the absence of any ten- man if he tried to apply to the land practices dency to improvement. To the extent that the that make for higher production, knowing admitted stagnation in output and income ex- full well that a lion's share of this would go to ists, the inevitable result is its perpetuation the landlord, moneylender, or merchant. rather than deviation from it, as amply demon- I also pointed to the illusion of equating strated in the Philippines over a long period industrialization, albeit of a spectacular kind, of years. with the well-being of rural Philippines. De- In the stately homes of the rich of Manila, sirable for any number of reasons, it doesn't one hears comments to the effect that the peas- follow that it is also the touchstone for a kind ants are lazy; that they are not concerned about of automatic or inevitable resurgence of a their privations, practically preferring it that poverty-stricken rural economy-either in the way; that they are docile anyway and no danger Philippines or elsewhere. Thus, in Brazil the in- to the status quo; and that, above all and first dustrial development drive of the Kubitschek of all, only stepped up industrialization would era brought no relief to the pauperized country- eventually redress the balance between city and side. It was not exactly planned that way; but, village, thus raising the standard of living of having judged economic development as if it the peasantry. were a choice between bread and steel and Taking this as my cue, I tried to impress failing to modernize agriculture, Brazil failed, upon my listeners the idea that even in the by the same token, to provide a market to ab- seemingly politically quiescent barrios the sorb the growing industrial production and "wantlessness" which characterizes the very poor overall economic disaster was inevitable. One can no longer be accepted as a normal condition could mention in this context rich-poor Vene- and that the expectation of rising material zuela and closer by, the disturbing conse- standards is with them. The notion that people quences of India's plans with their much prefer to live in poverty is "spurious anthro- greater stress on industrialization and much pology," practiced only at the risk of storing lesser stress on agricultural development. Visit to the Philippines 329 The common idea voiced in many circles is desirable or necessary to go beyond a few broad that the country is "on the go." Without be- suggestions, made mainly with a view to arous- grudging the rich their riches and welcoming ing a public debate on the subject. My put- a rising middle class and employment for a pose, I wished it to be understood, was not to greater number of unemployed or underem- outline a plan but merely to call attention to ployed, the "on the go" in the Philippines is the first steps involved, if the role of agriculture essentially a narrow process as far as the great in the national economy is to be recognized by mass of the people is concerned. This holds deed rather than by just another pious expres- true not only for people on the land but also sion about doing something for the farmer. for the majority of the people who live in Present and past administrations of the Manila, the industrial and commercial hub of Philippines have not been oblivious to the the country. The eye can see it, and statistics proposition that the conditions of the rural support it. This may explain why in Manila the people call for drastic remedies. On the insti- new industrial plants, offices, banks, and ultra- rutional side (tenure conditions) there exists ultra-modern insurance buildings do not dis- a great deal of enacted legislation. On the tech- sipate the impression that, despite the valuable nical side, much knowledge, time, and money economic services they perform, they appear to improve farm practices and render other somewhat like "sterile economic monuments" assistance have been invested by Philippine in a sea of poverty. After all, the big story in governments, U.S. aid missions, U.N. missions, the Manila Times of December 19, for me, was all manner of private organizations, and of not the story on page 1 but that on page 5 course the Agricultural College at Los Baios, with the heading: "Bleak Yule for Most of 27 to mention only the principal one. In both Million Filipinos." The "most" ranges from 60 fields the attempts must be judged a failure. to 85 percent of the population, with the poorest No administration since Magsaysay's has dis- of these in the rural sections of the country, ac- played more than a perfunctory interest in cording to the details of the story. Hence one enforcing existing tenancy legislation. In all of the main points in my discussions in Manila other fields it is partly a case, as in community was based on a statement made by J. K. development, of "putting the cart before the Galbraith, which aptly sums up the situation horse" and partly of fragmented and unco- described above: "Until people have a part in ordinated bits and pieces. But it is much more economic progress, there will be no economic than that. Above all and for whatever reason, progress." Until the millions of rural Philip- it has been the practice of governments in the pines become something much more than sub- Philippines to declare undying love for the sistence producers and modern consumers, all poor peasantry without acknowledging the fact economic plans with primary emphasis on that the rural condition is a national problem, "steel" rather than "bread" can, in larger sense, an emergency akin to that of a country at war, retard the country's economic progress and add and acting accordingly. relatively little to rural betterment. Any effort to apply the well-known "must We come now to the questions raised earlier be dones" should begin, therefore, with the and answers partly hinted at: "Who" is to be- administration's public stand that, for obvious come the initiator of new approach and "how" economic reasons, as well as for reasons of is this to be done? With so skimpy a baggage political stability and social justice, the deplor- on things Philippine, one is reluctant to venture able state of the agricultural economy and its into an area where so many a good man has farmers will be treated as a national emer- met with less than success. I was encouraged, gency. Even if the bureaucrats on the highest however, by my discussants who urged me to level favored such a move, there is much evi- voice the issue once again and hoped that I dence that the immediate responsibility and might see the president for this purpose. It was power to act do not lie with them. Further- under these circumstances that I attempted a more, the Philippine legislative and executive few proposals in Manila, which I now repeat. branches notwithstanding, the country is gov- And it should be noted here that at that time erned mostly by men rather than law, and the I did not-as I do not now-think it was either president of the republic is the man. There is 330 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 much that only he can do; and, with the will to agriculture is very inadequate, especially if that comes from an abiding interest, he, above it is to turn a new leaf. For this reason, a re- all, can face the agricultural issue squarely in view of the question of investment require- and outside Congress. Only he can dare open ments for agriculture in a unified plan is a wide the lid of the Pandora box of all that has very important step suggested here. Fifth, since gone wrong, face his opponents on issues of not all things are of equal importance whether tenancy and land redistribution (and make in industry or agriculture and since resources much political capital out of it), determine the are scarce and some things are more equal than rightful place of agriculture in any future others, priorities should be established that scheme of the country's economic development, indeed matter. It would be a useful and bracing and move the country from its destructive past departure from the past to see for once, for to a more promising future. Failing that, it is example, if nassive irrigation development is my strong conviction that the current wasteful not more urgently needed than community de- effort will go on until the institutions which velopment; to see, for example, if a loan from bind the country to the past will destroy those the World Bank couldn't serve better as a very institutions. For these reasons, the active means to develop the rich agricultural potential involvement of the president is essential in any of Mindanao rather than as a means to develop attempt to deal with the problem earnestly and part of Manila. Numerous other examples may lastingly. be cited, but for our purpose the above should If the president does take the lead, a num- suffice. In brief, for the first time, the planners ber of developments can be envisaged, although of the economy would deal with the city and not in the given order of precedence. First, an the barrio, industry and agriculture, weighing individual of the caliber of Dean Urnali, and national choices and, hopefully, making deci- preferably the dean himself, should be given sions on their merit. the task, based on a presidential directive, to I am only too aware of all the difficulties-- knock many a head together and streamline political, technical, and purely organizational-- the wasteful proliferation of useless agencies. that lie in the wake of any of the steps Second, a careful examination should be made suggested here. On the other hand, they are of all the types of rural assistance now in being not insurmountable. Lack of talent is not the and the human and material resources at their issue. Barring Japan and Taiwan, I know of disposal; it is high time to draw a line of de- no country in Asia which can boast of all the marcation between what is truly important and talent it needs. It is true of the Philippines, but can be made effective and the host of less im- I have seen enough to believe that this condi- portant, more marginal needs. Resources, avail- tion is much less true of that country. What is able and borrowed, would be concentrated ac- in short supply there is a strong will, a pro. cordingly. Third, once this groundwork is laid, found and interested appreciation that the the question of what kind of economic develop- country cannot go on mostly poor, and a pro- ment program the country needs should be con- pelling action from the top. The great weight sidered anew; the purpose of this exercise attached to these particular elements may should be to make agricultural development sound a bit unorthodox as prime prerequisites part and parcel of an overall plan, which is for economic development; but, if one is to not the case now. Fourth, a national economic deal with Philippine realities successfully, then program resting on two pillars-industry and the seeming intangibles just enumerated must agriculture-doesn't imply necessarily a fifty- be assessed accordingly. fifty division of investment funds. Neither should it imply in the Philippines much for one and very little for the other. This problem Relevance of Discussion, Foundation is highlighted by the sectoral distribution of Contribution, and its Role total fixed investment requirements for the five- year p!an, 1963-67. According to-this scheme, Such, in the main, was the nature of my obser- agriculture will account for only just under varions, discussions, and general conclusions. 7 percent of the total. The 7 percent allocation Errors of commission and omission aside, the Visit to the Philippines 331 fact remains that the entire subject is relevant the Philippines, I find the foundation's involve- to the foundation's work in the Philippines, its ment there is both timely and useful. It is al- work in being and work contemplated. If, for ready true of the IRRI and might be equally instance, the ultimate goals of the IRRI [Inter- true of the Los Bafios Agricultural College. If national Rice Research Institute} are to be the coming American staff should prove to be attained in the Philippines, this will come to a match to Dean Umali, the foundation will pass mainly in a rural setting which has parted build similarly in this instance as well. Al- company with stagnation and embraced growth. though the IRRI and the college are not yet It is difficult for me to see that, in conditions affecting significantly the life and work of the as they are now in the countryside, the great peasantry, I have no doubt that their potential majority of Filipino farmers are either terribly will come to the fore in more propitious cir- interested or materially in a position to put to cumstances. Besides, it is too early to expect use the results of the IRRI experiments. Mere such results from an institution such as the dissemination of the findings for ultimate ac- IRRI, which has only begun to flex its muscles. ceptance in a manner in which they reach, say, The Philippines are at a stage where addi- an American farmer, will probably not do for tional foundation resources could be put to the average Filipino farmer. The acceptance is great advantage. The existence of a five-year more likely to come through an effective multi- plan, 1963-67, is indeed a welcome develop- pronged attack against his disabilities. In Pam- ment. The contribution to it of such an outstand- panga, for example, it may mean, most of all, ingly able and public-spirited man as Sixto institutional changes in working somebody Roxas and the contribution of the World Bank else's land and irrigation facilities as a prelude staff amply attest to that. But, as pointed out to the fullest utilization of better seed. If and elsewhere, it is subject to question because it when such developments obtain, the farmer fails to consider seriously the role of agriculture will be ready to cope with improved prac- in the country's economic development. Hence tices, including high-yielding varieties of the my belief that, if in the near future the founda- IRRI. tion is called upon to give assistance to the As with the IRRI, the hoped-for re-awaken- strengthening of the plan, it could be of crucial ing of Philippine agriculture is very germane significance. It could be, if one of the forms to the foundation's attempt to raise the stand- of that assistance dealt with what seems to me ards of the Los Bafios Agricultural College. a very basic problem: the creation of a bal- Dean Umali understands very well that his anced plan, with admittedly national agricul- college must not be "an island within" but one rural needs providing the balance. serving the interests of the farmers. More than In saying this, I do not mean to imply that that, he is eager to have the college play the only the foundation can perform that kind of a role of the bellwether or fountainhead of service. What I do mean is that, since the policymaking ideas. With such goals, I need people who fashioned the plan may be, al- not belabor the significance of the foundation's though not necessarily, committed to it as it contribution to impart to the college the kind stands, the foundation is in a better or freer of "excellence" it still lacks. In this connection position to give expression to the issue re- I cannot refrain from expressing the hope that peatedly mentioned in these notes. It may be the Cornellians will be in tune with the idea considered by some that, in "making a case," that the process of a better college-in-the- I have allowed myself too much poetic license. making may very well coincide with a period The fact remains, however, that implementa- of ferment and change in the countryside- tion of the kind of plan discussed here may and not only technical changes but social as very well result in the following: economic well. Dean Umali, who recognizes the inter- development in which all people participate dependence of both and welcomes an institu- and all share in its benefits; and political sta- tional change, will need all the sympathetic bility and social justice, which, one hopes, are understanding and active support of those its inevitable corollaries. A picture of Utopia, called upon to help create a better college. perhaps, but surely worth striving for, for the A final word. Thinking back on the visit to Filipino people-and for the Ford Foundation. 332 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 43. Agrarian Reform in Nepal In September 1962 Ladejinsky had been encouraged by the king's expressed interest and apparent intention to move forward with agrarian reform. But on returning to Nepal for another visit in February 1963 he found the program lagging. In this letter of March 16, addressed again directly to King Mahendra, Ladejinsky attempted to correct the situation. Emphasizing the basic role of agriculture in development in a country such as Nepal, and the need to introduce social justice and to override firmly the inevitable opposition of vested interests, he did not hesitate to warn the monarch of the explosive political consequences which might follow if meaningful action were not taken. "Experience teaches us that the only wise and practical course lies in timely prevention of the likely outbursts from below." This sort of advice, baldly expressed to a ruler, would almost necessarily close the door thenceforth to the adviser, whether or not the advice was accepted. IN THE PAST MONTH I had the pleasure of of the program given legal form and the en- visiting your country twice; and, as on a previ- abling legislation enacted at an early date. ous occasion, I take the liberty of sharing with The realities of the situation viewed during you my impressions of these visits. If I impose my most recent visits are not nearly as en- upon your time and attention, it is only because couraging as they appeared in September. The I am aware of your deep interest in the matter entire matter seems dormant. The provisions I shall presently touch upon. have not been given legal form and, conse- The subject is a familiar one to you, namely quently, have not been enacted. What is sig- the problem of agrarian reform. In this connec- nificant in this regard is the spirit of compla- tion, it is my duty to report to you that on the cency I encountered in Kathmandu. The spirit two recent occasions I carried away the im- of buoyancy, of the desire to move ahead with pression of lack of progress in this field since the measures of unquestioned importance for my visit to Nepal in late September of last the welfare of Nepal, so evident in September, year. Moreover, I am of the opinion that "lack is hard to find now. of progress" in this instance means not only What is especially disconcerting to me is standing still but possibly undoing some of the apparent movement to amend and water the work already attained. down the principal provision of the agreed.- To be specific, in September of last year, upon legislation. I have reference, Your Maj.. as I had the honor of reporting to you in per- esty, to the clause specifying that the landlord son, I was convinced that your country was on is to be entitled to one-third of the crop and the road to a meaningful reform. The nature of the tenant to two-thirds. From my information the reform program was carefully considered; recently gathered, it appears that an attempt and, above all, the principal provisions of the is being made to reverse that decision, to pro- reform had been worked out and seemingly pose now that the crop be shared equally be- agreed upon by the representatives of your tween landlord and tenant. For all practical government concerned with this issue. It was purposes this would mean giving legal sanc- my privilege to outline the provision to you tion to the existing situation, without disturb- during the audience you kindly granted me. I ing the customary landlord-tenant relationship. left gratefully encouraged by Your Majesty's It would also mean that the original purpose attention and your desire to see the provisions of the reform to improve the tenant's condition Agrarian Reform in Nepal 333 by first reducing his rent and thereby stimu- gram contains no provision making the ceiling lating a much-needed rise in agriculture by stipulation retroactive as of a date prior to the providing the tenant with an incentive to pro- division of the land among members of the duce more would not be attained. family. Under the circumstances, the ceiling Two reasons have been advanced for keep- provisions are hardly a threat or burden the ing the present tenant's rent proposition. The landlords have to shoulder. first one is that the increase in land revenue Your Majesty, all these questions which now in force, followed by a reduction of the have arisen in recent months have had an ad- landlord's share of rent, would constitute an verse effect upon the proposed reform, best undue burden on the landlord. The second expressed in the absence of a drive to proceed reason is that the imposition of a ceiling on with the task. The high hope of six months landholdings in addition to a reduction of the ago that Nepal was finally on the road to a landlord's rent would be akin to beating the meaningful reform has not so far been ful- landlord with both ends of the stick. filled. This negative development is a dis- Your Majesty, neither argument is valid if service to the problems, desires, and urgent the reform is indeed to be a measure intended needs of the great majority of your loyal and for the benefit of the tenants as well as to raise devoted cultivators. For the same reason it is the country's agricultural productivity. As to contrary to the summary of the three-year plan. the first reason, it is well to keep in mind that The summary, referring to the section on the the land revenue the landlords have been pay- improvement in the land system, had this to ing over the years, in cash, has failed to keep say: pace with the rising value of agricultural prod- The major portion of the crop does not go ucts, especially after the First and Second the farmers under the present land sys- World Wars. Whereas the land tax originally tem and so there is no encouragement to was meant to be 20 to 25 percent of the crop, these peasants who might be interested in in recent years it has in fact been reduced to the experimenting with new methods to not more than 6 percent and as low as 1 bring about an increase in production. percent. I submit, therefore, that the increase in Hence a reform of the land system has be- land revenue or land tax is no great burden . . .come necessary not only to increase agricul- in itself but merely a long-overdue and mild rural output but also to remove the ec- correction of a situation from which only the . d i ( landlords have benefited over a long period of noik hit rural society). years. For the same reason, a reduction in landlords' rent at this time should not be used The significance and soundness of this state- as a sound argument to prove that this step ment cannot be overstated, and all considera- would impose a particularly heavy burden tions involving the land system problem must upon them. recognize the correctness of this approach and The second reason advanced is, to repeat, proceed from there. that a ceiling on landholdings plus rent reduc- Now, as in the past, what your government tion is more than the landlord can bear. The decides to do or not to do about the agrarian fact is that the ceiling provision in the contem- problem of Nepal is the business of your gov- plated reform will, at best, achieve only a mini- ernment only. But now, as on previous occa- mum of what it is normally supposed to sions and as a friend and well-wisher of every- achieve. A ceiling is a measure invoked to de- thing that spells the welfare of your country termine the maximum amount of land a land- and your people, I take the liberty of restating lord can hold, releasing the excess for purchase a few points, which it was my privilege to and redistribution among the tenants. In the convey to you on previous occasions, orally and vast majority of cases the latter will not happen in writing. in Nepal for two reasons: (a) Most of the I am aware of the fact that a land tenure re- landlords have already divided up the excess form in your country, as in most countries, is land among members of their families, close a combination of a number of considerations: and distant; and (b) the proposed reform pro- political, social, and economic. Try as one may, 334 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 there is no avoiding them. The political and 1. to increase production in order to meet the social justice factors are so clearly part of it in needs of an expanding population as well Nepal that they need little reiteration. The as providing resources for future plans fact is that, as I mentioned on earlier occa- 2. to achieve economic stability, thereby cre- sions, the seeming quiescence in the areas ating an atmosphere conducive to economic where the tenants are economically depressed development for the successful implementa- is no sign that this state of affairs will last in- tion of the plan definitely. Experience teaches us that the only 3. to provide additional employment oppor- wise and practical course lies in timely preven- tunities for a population which is increasing tion of the likely social outbursts from below. at an estimated rate of 150,000 a year and The same experience teaches us that there is 4. to ensure social justice in the distribution also a more positive aspect to the problem, of the increased production. namely, the greater and active loyalty and un- questioned support of your government on the Imbedded in every paragraph just cited is part of the overwhelming majority of your the notion that in a country such as Nepal the people. Therein lies the basis for true political revitalization of agriculture through increased stability. productivity is a must. What is explicitly stated One can, therefore, readily understand why and implied here is that income from agricul- the government of Iran, for example, has re- ture must rise to meet the mounting financial cently seen fit to institute a major and drastic needs of the current three-year plan and those "land to the landless" program instead of wait- to follow. With this in mind, we must remem- ing for the problem to get out of hand. Sig- ber that the problem of how to raise agricul- nificant, too, is the result of the plebiscite in tural productivity cannot be solved unless the which this program was put to test; virtually cultivator is given an incentive to produce; this all peasants voted for it and the opposition is where rent reduction comes in, and this is of the landlords was swept aside. Without why the maintenance of the existing rentals passing any judgment on whether or not com- goes contrary to the needs of a better agricul- plete disestablishment of tenancy in Iran was tural economy, the principal source of the the only course available, it appears that at country's wealth. least one consideration motivating the shah Your Majesty, I need not repeat now all the of Iran is that in trying to improve the living reasons I have already cited why the cultivators conditions of the peasantry he is also making of Nepal are not in a position now to invest political capital by securing the support of the one extra rupee in order to increase their majority of the people. I do not cite this as yields. Their actual share in the crop is much an example for Nepal to follow in every re- too little to provide them with the incentive to spect, but it is not without its relevance to invest and produce more. Only a significant any country determined to improve the lot of reduction in rent, which would give the farmer its people by rendering social and economic the extra Rsl00 to 200 can make the difference justice. between investment and no investment, larger Aside from these issues, there is, of course, production or customary stagnation. For this the proposition that (a) an increase in agri- reason alone a reducion in rent and its enforce- cultural productivity in Nepal is the basis of eason ae the ny ondin that wo ro- the country's economic survival and well-being ment are the only conditions that would pro vide the cultivator with modest funds and in- and (b) that under the existing tenure condi- tions no increase in agricultural production can take place. This is the more significant To ignore this, and for reasons of questionable since in one way or another agriculture is pro- validity as pointed out earlier in this letter, is viding 90 percent of Nepal's income. The to attempt the perpetuation of a situation which drafters of the Nepal three-year plan have well has not helped the country's economic develop- understood this, as evidenced by the following ment in the past and which is bound to do references of the plan to the long-term ob- greater harm in the future. Hence my conclu- jectives: sions, Your Majesty, that any and all moves to Agrarian Reform in Nepal 335 leave existing rental arrangements undisturbed getting on with the job of increasing the agri- are best to be avoided. cultural productivity of Nepal, of easing the I cannot underscore strongly enough, even heavy burden now shouldered by your peasants, at the danger of repeating myself, that stagna- and of boosting national development under tion in agriculture in Nepal means overall eco- your leadership. A few undeniable technical nomic stagnation. Your government's decision problems and relatively small financial require- to raise land revenue was a most salutory devel- ments are being used to conceal the problem opment, particularly in the light of the evidence that really matters: (a) the unwillingness of the that it is being collected. Nevertheless, this landlords to make any concessions to the just measure by itself cannot meet the growing fi- and immediate needs of the tenants, (b) their nancial or developmental needs of the country. seeming contentment with the low produc- Financial requirements cannot be met mainly tivity of the country's agriculture, and (c) from foreign aid sources, however generous their apparent unconcern with the economic these may be. Your financial needs will rise as growth and general well-being of Nepal as a the country's economic development grows. whole. Such landlord attitudes are common, Nepal's income can only grow as agricultural but they are not insurmountable. Your leader- production expands. The only solution to this ship can overcome them, realizing as you do dilemma: to make certain that everything that that the status quo on the land cannot endure tends to increase the productivity of your agri- very much longer. In my privileged associa- culture is brought to bear upon the problem. tion with Your Majesty, I have carried away The agrarian reform proposals of last Sep- the impression of your awareness that the tember are a modest beginning in that direc- winds of new ideas are bound to affect your tion. In fact, they are a bare minimum when landless people and your country as a whole; compared to agrarian reform measures insti- and what appear like significant demands to- tuted with various degrees of success in Japan, day are likely to become minimal demands Formosa, South Vietnam, India, more recently tomorrow. The inescapable conclusion is that in Iran, and currently proposed in the Philip- the agrarian reform considerations of Septem- pines. Whereas a number of the countries ber last should be given a new lease on life mentioned have had to face the question of through legal form and speedy enactment. land redistribution, land purchases, and ways Your Majesty, with no personal axe to grind and means of paying landlords for the land, other than the political and economic stability the reform proposals for Nepal do not yet deal of your country, you will bear with me if I with this problem. Your financial requirements end this letter with the concluding lines of my for the limited reform are very modest, letter to you of February 15, 1962. They were: centered as they are mainly on the credit needs Nepal must choose between togress and of three districts only where the reform provi- sions are to be put into operation. In short, stagnation, and I know that your govern- I am thereby calling your attention to the fact ient will choose the way that leads to that the reform proposals of last September progress and the welfare of the great mass are indeed modest in nature. Any effort to of your poverty-submerged cultivators. This water them down would spell no reform at all, is a problem which permits no delay. To a possibility that must be avoided at all costs. hesitate is merely to invite greater difficulty Your Majesty, after my numerous visits to at a later time; and I hope, in view of this, your country and my experience in other coun- that one can look forward to your govern- tries of Asia, I have come to believe that will ment's earnest and unswerving efforts to and determination on the part of your govern- implement a meaningful reform of the land ment is the most important precondition for tenure system. 336 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 44. Tenurial Conditions and the Package Program in India After another visit to Indonesia late in March 1963 to participate in a symposium on land reform, Ladejinsky was asked by the Ford Foundation to study the relation between existing tenurial conditions and Intensive Agricultural District (IADP or "package") Program the foundation was sponsoring in a number of districts in India. Ladejinsky accordingly returned to India, where he toured intensively selected districts in Madras, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh and prepared this report-his first on India since the four 1952 and 1954 papers. Ladejinsky's findings reportedly created a considerable stir. The Planning Commission promptly requested the several state governments concerned to comment on Ladejinsky's findings with respect to their own jurisdictions. Their lengthy replies were published by the Planning Commission in 1965, together with Ladejinsky's paper, under the same title. A more detailed report on the impact of this paper will be found in "Agrarian Reform in India" (see the section entitled "The Latest Phase"), the first paper in Part V following. The original report is dated 1963 with no month given. The summary section with which Ladejinsky opens the report is presented here, together with-as a sample-his recommendations for the Tanjore (Madras) district. Summary In four out of the five districts visited by us, the tenurial situation is not satisfactory. A WE VISITED THE FOLLOWING IADP districts sizable area is cultivated by tenants in all dis- to study the tenurial conditions and their effect tricts except Aligarh. The problem is most on the package program: Aligarh, Ludhiana, acute in districts Tanjore and West Godavary, Shahabad, Tanjore, and West Godavary. We where 50 percent or more of farmers cultivate devoted approximately one week to each of wholly or partially leased lands, mostly on the mentioned districts, visiting numerous oral leases. In Tanjore, West Godavary, and villages, attending farmers' meetings, and Shahabad, the land records do not contain any discussing relevant problems with tenants, land- information about tenants. Ejection of tenants lords, representatives of Panchayats and co- has taken place in the past, and the landlords operatives, and the officials concerned with the still continue to change tenants from plot to implementation of the land reform and the plot to defeat the tenancy laws. The few ten- package programs. In addition, before and ants who were allowed to continue over a fairly after a visit to the districts, we sought the long period also feel insecure. Thus, a large views of the officials at state headquarters con- number of cultivators hold no title to the leased cerned with the two programs. In the accompa- lands, pay extortionate rents, and are never nying notes, we have set out our assessment certain of their status. They are left with little of the problem and also our recommendations. to subsist on and much less to invest. The These recommendations include suggestions for reason for this state of affairs is twofold: One necessary modifications in existing legislation is the faulty legislation itself; and the second as well as administrative steps to be taken to is the negative attitude of the government offi- implement the legislation. cials at state, district, block, or village levels. Tenurial Conditions and the Package Program in India 337 With the exception of Aligarh, no serious vation by leasing an additional acre or two attempt was made to enforce the enacted land of land. It would be in the best interest of reform legislation. If land tenure conditions agriculture, therefore, to restrict resumption were a part of the criteria for selecting a pack- severely: no resumption should be permitted to age district, West Godavary and Tanjore absentee owners and others whose principal wouldn't qualify at all. occupation is not cultivation; and it should be Such tenurial conditions are obviously not so regulated that the holding of the tenant conducive to agricultural production. This cultivator is not reduced below the size of, say, situation is made much more difficult because a family holding. the v.ws (village-level workers) hesitate to As mentioned earlier, most tenancies are prepare production plans for the "pure" tenant oral leases, and the tenants are generally not farmer and, in respect of leased lands, for the in a position to establish their title to the owner tenant farmer unless the landlord agrees cultivation of a particular piece of land. This to it. As part of this situation, a cooperative has tended to defeat not only the provisions of society will not provide him with a short-term tenancy laws but also the attempts at preparing loan unless he produces a lease deed from the production plans for then and extending them landlord or his signature on the loan applica- credit facilities as envisioned by the package tion. Even where a tenant succeeds in all this, program. It is important, therefore, that im- the maximum loan that he can get is very mediate steps be taken to prepare a record of small. There is ample evidence, therefore, that tenancies in accordance with well-known pro- the vast majority of tenant cultivators are poor cedures. As an aid to officials in the prepara- investors and the package program aimed at tion of this record, a committee should be set reaching every farm family is bound to suffer up in each village or a group of villages made accordingly. up of two tenant farmers, one part-owner-part- A factor in the tenurial situation which tenant farmer, and one landlord. In making this needs to be singled out is that, in all the four recommendation we have in niind the experi- districts where leasing is permitted, a large ence of Shahabad district, where the prepara- number of small landowners have leased small tion of the record by the official agency proved acreage to make up viable units of cultivation. to be a fiasco. What the officials don't know In enacting land legislation, this factor must about "who is who" in the village-who rents receive careful consideration. whose land for how much-the committee In Madras and Andhra Pradesh, the present would surely know and thereby ensure the cor- land reform laxv is of a temporary, stopgap receness of the record. The other important nature; and comprehensive legislation has yet to consideration is to give the tenants a sense of be enacted. In Bihar the law in force is still the participation in the implementation of the land Tenancy Act of 1885 with some modifications reform program. As soon as this basic record is which are wholly inadequate. Legislation in the prepared, each tenant farmer should be pro- Punjab is extremely defective and needs com- vided with a certificate indicating the plots he plete overhauling. Only in Uttar Pradesh has a cultivates. In view of its importance to the .vell-thought-out comprehensive legislation been package program, the preparation of such a enacted and effectively implemented. There, record should receive high priority and its cost millions of tenants and subtenants were made could legitimately form part of the package owners and hundreds of thousands who had budget for the year. been evicted were restored in their rights. We noticed that rents are payable generally The provisions for security of tenure are as a share of the produce. Crop share rents are crucial to the whole scheme of land legislation, extremely difficult to regulate and should be and it has been the experience all over India abolished and replaced by cash rents. To facili- that the right to resume land for self-cultivation tate this, either the rents should be fixed as a by the landlord has tended to defeat the provi- multiple of land revenue, as in Maharashtra sions for security of tenure. Resumption is all and Gujarat; or else the state government the more damaging in the case of small land- should divide lands in each area into a few owners who have made up viable units of culti- broad categories and determine the "average" 338 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 produce of each such category of land and the cannot assert security of tenure rights because average price at which it may be converted they lack documentary evidence that they rent into cash. The average produce and the aver- this or that plot of land. Such records available age prices so determined should be announced in other states are presumptive evidence, and in each area for general information. anybody disputing it has to produce evidence We are aware that, due to the proverbial to the contrary. Some years back the govern- weakness of the tenants' socioeconomic posi- ment of Madras had passed orders that the tion, the landlords would in the long run be names of tenants and the terms and conditions able to defeat even the soundest provisions for under which they rented land should be entered tenancy regulation. We are of the view, there- in the remarks column of the village record fore, that steps should be promoted for the called "Adangal." Our enquiries indicated that early transfer of ownership to all tenants in such entries were not being made. Without respect of their nonresumable lands. To facili- such a record any and all provisions relating tate implementation of this program, certain to security of tenure cannot be enforced. steps would be necessary: (a) The rate of In view of its importance, we recommend compensation should be equitable both to that a basic record of tenancies should be pre- owners and tenants. We consider that an pared in accordance with the well-known pro- amount equal to 15 to 20 times the net income cedures adopted in the periodical recording of the owner with payments spread over a operations which are held in several other period of about ten years should be quite rea- states. The task of preparing such a record sonable to both. (b) The state should actively would call for the temporary augmentation of sponsor this program either by assuming re- the staff of each firka by the appointment of an sponsibility for the payment of the compensa- additional revenue inspector and of each tehsil tion as in Uttar Pradesh or else by giving fi- by a naib tehsildar. Local officials in Tanjore nancial assistance to tenants directly or through estimate that, with this additional staff, a record land mortgage banks as in Maharashtra. (c) of rights could be prepared for all the villages The procedures for the transfer of ownership of the district in less than one year. and determination of compensation should be As an aid to the officials, we recommend simple, easily enforceable, and widely publi- that a committee should be set up made up cized. of two tenant farmers, one part-owner-part- The stand taken by the cooperatives in ad- tenant, and one landlord. This recommendation vancing credit deprives a large number of is based on two considerations. What the offi-. tenants of the opportunities offered by the cials don't know about "who is who" in the package program; the totally negative attitude village-who rents whose land and how much toward the tenancy problem on the part of all and who owns what land-the committee officials from state to village levels only com- would surely know and thereby insure the cot- pounds the problem. The latter is probably an "inborn" prejudice and admittedly difficult to rcnes o t re the te ant deal with. But if the cooperatives continue to consideration is to give the tenants a sense of treat the tenants without regard for social participation in the implementation of the land justice or the practical considerations of the reform program. package program, the government should assist As soon as the record is prepared for any the tenants through taccavi loans, bypassing the village, every tenant should be provided with cooperatives if necessary. a certificate indicating the plots he cultivates. We would like to emphasize that the prepa- ration of this record is of crucial importance not only to the implementation of the security Recommendations (Tanjore) of tenure program but to the execution of the package program as well. Once the tenants Our first recommendation centers on the prepa- have been recorded, it will be possible for the ration of a basic record of tenancies. This vLws to prepare the farm plans for them and follows from the fact that presently tenants for the cooperatives to advance loans to them Tenurial Conditions and the Package Program in India 339 freely without much risk. Production loans ants and create a more conducive atmosphere being available to the tenants in adequate for the execution of the program. measure and their dependence on the landlords With respect to rent, we recommend that a and moneylenders reduced accordingly, it will new provision be legislated reducing rentals become possible for them to assert the rights to one-third of the gross produce. In making conferred upon them under the legislation, this recommendation we recognize that the Finally, in view of its importance to the pack- existing 40 percent provision is not enforced. age program, the preparation of such a record However, we are of the opinion that any re- should get high priority and its cost could duction provided by law, even if not fully en- legitimately form part of the "package" budget forced, is apt to have a leverage effect on for the area. bringing down the rents in practice. This is With respect to the problem of resumption, borne out by the experience in Tanjore; when we recommend that resumption should be the share of the landlord was reduced by law terminated forthwith and permanent rights from 60 to 40 percent, the actual rent also conferred on tenants in respect of lands which came down from the earlier 75-80 percent they now hold by promulgating appropriate range to the 60-65 percent range. legislation. We reiterate that, although the As a further aid to the tenant and to the right of resumption is restricted to half of the cause of higher productivity, we recommend area subject to a limit of 5 acres, so long as that the system of crop-share rent be abolished this right continues to be operative and non- and a fixed quantity of produce or its value resumable lands remain undetermined, the ten- in money be established. This is not a novel ant can never feel secure in respect of any measure and is well applied on temple lands portion of his holding. Furthermore, any new in Tanjore. The merit of the extension of this legislative consideration of the problem created system is plain; it would become possible for by the existing act must recognize the follow- the tenant to invest more money and labor, ing: The right of resumption has been avail- the incentive being the retention for personal able to the landlords for over eight years. It use whatever additional crop he produced. should be safe, therefore, to presume now The existing provision of 40 percent rent that, if a landlord has not exercised his right based on "normal" gross produce made it in- until now, he was either not in a position to operative. To enjoy its benefits a tenant has to resume the land or he was not anxious to do so. go to the Rent Court in order to determine Whatever the reason, the new legislation along what that "normal" is and the share thereof the line indicated should put an end to the payable to the landlord. In Tanjore hundreds insecurity currently imposed upon the tenants of thousands of tenants would have to troop of Tanjore. to the courts and, incidentally, overwhelm them Once the record of rights has been estab- in the process of trying to determine what lished and the right of resumption is with- "normal" is. Besides, the determination of the drawn, we recommend that the government normal gross produce of each tenant's holding should enact suitable legislation for the transfer by the Rent Court would be a time-consuming of ownership to the tenants in respect of non- process beyond practical application. We rec- resumable lands. The ceiling provisions in ommend that the cultivated lands in a local Tanjore have provided hardly any excess land area be divided into a few broad categories for the establishment of farm ownership among according to their productivity and the average tenants. With no other government-supported or normal produce of each category of land land purchase program in existence, the non- determined and notified. If this is done, it will resumed land could serve as a beginning of a become possible for a tenant to avail of the land purchase program. We are of the opinion provisions for fair rent by offering a fixed per- that an announcement by the government that centage of the average or normal gross pro- ownership will be transferred to the tenants as duce so determined without resort to the Rent soon as the records of rights have been pre- Court in every case. It will also facilitate the pared would remove uncertainty among ten- determination of fair rents by the rent courts. 340 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 We noted repeatedly our awareness of the been carried out successfully despite opposi- gaps between legislative action and its execu- tion. Failing to legislate and enforce in the tion. But there comes a time and place when face of existing nonoperative acts is little short the atmosphere of a rural area is surcharged of the state's abdication of its sovereign rights with uncertainty and apprehensiveness, both to interfere in the economic and social process among tenants and owners. Tanjore is one of when it is found wanting. The fact that the those places, and the time is for sound legis- implementation of the advocated measures will lation and determination on the part of all the not resolve all of the tenants' problems is no relevant parts of government to enforce it. That argument against trying to undo the worst of such a move would divorce the landlord of the tenant's disabilities, thus improving his some of their privileges and arouse their oppo- condition as a cultivator and as a member of sition is indeed true; equally true is that the village community. His contribution to the Tanjore and its tenurial problems are not package program would be heightened ac- unique and yet similar measures elsewhere have cordingly. 45. Land Reform in Indonesia Early in December 1963 Ladejinsky returned to Indonesia in response to a special invitation from Dr. Sadjarwo, minister for agriculture and agrarian affairs. It was his third visit there since January 1961. This time the minister asked him to "undertake a number of field trips for a firsthand examination of the land reform program" which had been enacted in I960. Ladejinsky remained there for nearly three months, visiting a number of villages in west, central, and east Java, in Bali, and in south Sumatra. During this period he met with the minister a number of times to report on and discuss his interim findings. In this letter to the minister dated February 27, 1964, and written just before Ladejinsky's return to Kuala Lumpur, he confirmed and amplified the points already made in the earlier discussions. With respect both to its ambitiously stated objectives of land redistribution and its more modest provisions for security of tenure and rent ceilings, the land reform, then supposedly near completion, was an almost total failure. The letter concludes constructively with a suggested course of action. AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE TASK you tions is indeed mine only. I wish to note, how- wished me to undertake, I am happy to begin ever, that in carrying out your assignment I this letter by stating how much I appreciated have endeavored to look at the issues in a all you and your staff have done for me and spirit of objectivity, understanding, and sympa- how much I enjoyed our association. I assure thy for what you have been trying to do these you, Mr. Minister, that I look upon my work many years. in your country as a privilege, and I shall think Upon my arrival in Jakarta in early Decem- back of our many fruitful discussions as memo- ber, you were good enough to suggest that I table occasions. undertake a number of field trips for a firsthand I write this letter in a purely private ca- examination of the current state of the land pacity. The views expressed in it are entirely reform program. With this in mind, I spent my own. For this reason, the responsibility for some time in the countryside of Java, Bali, and my acts of commission or omission in the south Sumatra. In the course of our conversa- course of my observations of your rural condi- tions, I tried to convey to you my impressions Land Reform in Indonesia 341 and findings as well as to indicate the urgent in agreement or disagreement with your own. need to enhance agricultural productivity. Now Assuming that my comments are valid, it is that I am about to take leave of your country, my hope that they may be of some use to you I take the liberty of this private letter to you in the tasks that lie ahead. to amplify the points I raised during our talks. In brief, the purpose of the agrarian legis- Here and there I refer to Bali and south lation enacted by your government is twofold: Sumatra, but for reasons well known to you, the (a) to provide a maximum number of landless emphasis in this letter is almost entirely on with land of their own and (b) to create more Java. reasonable tenurial conditions for all those who In line with your assignment, I visited a must continue to work somebody else's land. number of villages in west, central, and east It is the sum total of these two basic proposi- Java, in Bali, and in south Sumatra. I talked tions that constitutes the core of your land re- with a good many farmers in the villages and form program, and it is from the point of view in the field, and I had the benefit of the obser- of these all-important intentions that I inquired vations of central and local officials involved in into the program in the field. Your idea to pro- the reform program. I should add that the co- ceed with my assignment now was indeed a operation of the officials left little to be de- timely one because official after official has told sired; but, for this cooperation, the usefulness LIS that in parts of Java the reform had been of the trip would not have been nearly as completed or was about to be completed or significant. Occasionally, the number of officials that the reform as a whole will surely be coin- accompanying us seemed excessive, but it is pleted in 1964. Under the circumstances, the not a cause for censure. I take this occasion, questions that call for answers are these: What therefore, to express to you and to the officials is the nature of the "completed" reform or of Agraria, both in Jakarta and in the field, my what is it that will be completed in the cur- gratitude for the very efficient arrangements rent year? Who are the beneficiaries? How connected with our work. large is their number? How much land will Despite the many contacts with villages they have received as a result of the enforce- and villagers, my sample was, of necessity, small ment of the program? What might be the ef- in relation to the more than 20,000 villages fects of land redistribution of agricultural Java and Bali comprise. The temptation to productivity? Finally, since the vast majority see one more village and yet another village in of the cultivators remain sharecroppers or ten- order to learn something more about this or ants of owners' land, are the security of tenure that aspect of the program was ever present, but provisions being enforced and are the burdens physical endurance and time limitations could of the tenants being lightened accordingly? A not be disregarded. But whatever the reason, I number of other questions might be raised, but realize that on a look-and-see field trip of this the above will suffice for the purpose in mind. kind some significant features of the program The impression carried away from the trips must have escaped my attention. I note this to is that, to date, the results of the reform fall stress that what I have to say in the subsequent far short of anticipations implied by the en- paragraphs is not a definitive picture of the acted legislation. The gaps are indeed wide land reform program three years after its com- between aim and fulfillment. Moreover, I be- iencement. Nevertheless, the observations in lieve that if the present trend is not reversed, the course of the field trips form a pattern even the end of 1964 will witness little change which provides me with a fairly good picture in the results already discernible. Thinking of the present state of land reform in Indonesia. back and reflecting upon my field experience, In setting forth my finding, Mr. Minister, I I am of the opinion that what I referred to need hardly tell you that I am motivated only earlier as a "pattern" may very well evolve by the desire to be of service to you in your into the definitive picture which an unbiased deep concern about the welfare of the land- and thorough observer, with much more time less. From my happy association with you over at his disposal, is likely to find a year from now. the past three years, I know that you expect Permit me, Mr. Minister, to touch first on from me a frank expression of views, be they the land redistribution phase of the reform. 342 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 Your legislation lays great stress, and rightly so, lages. According to the first source, the total on the idea of shifting a large number of land- amount of land-wet and dry-available for less to an ownership base. In the long run this distribution, estimated as of the end of De- makes for the soundest possible economic, so- cember 1963, is as follows: West Java is the cial, and political arrangement in agriculture. redistribution leader with 28,000 hectares, or Article 7 of the first Agrarian Law promulgated just a little more than one percent of the total on September 24, 1960, spells out the philoso- cultivated land; central Java with 8,000 hectares phy behind the idea, while the entire law of already distributed, or a fraction of one percent December 29, 1960, with its maximum reten- of the total, considers its job completed; east tion limits, provides all the important provi- Java with 6,000 hectares distributed and a sions under which excess land can be made possible 22,000 yet to go in the current year available for redistribution and tenurial condi- would represent, when completed, another tions improved. The significance of this legisla- fraction of one percent of the total cultivated tion is obvious; and, for reasons I shall point land. Bali, with the more readily available out elsewhere, the arguments in certain quarters princely land, might actually redistribute 4 that the maximum amount of land an owner percent of its total cultivated land. Such is the can retain is too high need not be taken seri- overall picture as seen from the capitals of the ously. What is important at this juncture is provinces. whether the legislation in its present form is It doesn't take much searching in the vil- being carried out. lages to comprehend the real meaning of these Once in the field, it becomes clear that excess global figures. Fairly large sections of the land' is being distributed among the landless. country have no land to redistribute at all; and, My notebook is replete with references to such where such land is available, it is available in cases in all of the three provinces of Java as small amounts, divided among the few in plots well as in Bali. It is quite apparent that the ranging from 0.5 hectares to 0.2 hectares, as recipients are pleased with their plots, regard- is the case in Bali. It has been reported to us less of how small, while the nonrecipients ex- that in Solo Residency of central Java, for in- press the hope that their turn may come at a stance, not one hectare of peasant excess land later date. In the case of Java and on the as- was available; and villages with a total of 5 sumption that each new owner receive one- hectares of excess land were no rarity. Madium half of a hectare, as of the end of 1963 the Residency of east Java, with 1,151 villages and total number of families who benefited from nearly 400,000 hectares of cultivated wet and the reform was approximately 128,000; if all dry land, has only an estimated 1,000 hectares the land earmarked for redistribution is indeed for redistribution spread over 200 to 225 vil- so disposed of by the end of 1964, the number lages. So far, only part of the land has been of recipients will be approximately 248,000. divided; and it is worth noting that, but for At first glance these figures are not small; but, the 520 hectares of one hadji, the excess land if the very rough estimate of four to five mil- would have been that many hectares smaller. lion sharecroppers in Java is close to reality, In Pekalongan Residency, comprising 544 vil- then not more than 6 percent of these families lages, only 75 villages are involved in the re- will have received some land upon the comple- form with a total excess land of less than 500 tion of the program. hectares distributed among more than 900 Two sources tell this story: information families. Clearly, these villages are among the provided at the provincial capitals and samples better-endowed ones, for such entries in my of the actual distribution of land in the vil- notebook as 23 hectares divided among 126 families, or 27 hectares among 104 families, and so on, are quite common. It is not surpris- ing that with so many villages nor involved in 1. This relates to land owned and rented out by this process, I encountered many farmers who resident peasant proprietors with more than the ti rcs,Iecutrdmn amr h permissible limit, absentee owners. hadiis, and land had not yet heard about the program. The un- of the nobility. It doesn't take account of former derstandable and very desirable provision of the estate lands already occupied by squatters. reform legislation to provide the new owners Land Reform in Indonesia 343 with 2 hectares of land doesn't yet accord with gardless of how small the distributed acreage, the reality of the situation. this part of the program is the land reform Small though the volume of excess land is, program. Whether one talks with the governor tens of thousands of families are receiving land. of a province and his assistants or a bupati and Who are these recipients? The question is not his co-workers, the theme is always the same- easy to answer. It is tempting to say that the redistribution of excess land. An impression is farmer who cultivated a particular plot of land thus created that the second part of the pro- as a tenant received that plot of land. In many gram, namely, the security of tenure part, is of instances, this is surely the case but probably little importance. At best, one hears occasionally not as a rule. At least one farmer introduced a a brief comment to the effect that written con- discordant note when he remarked at a public tracts, rent reduction, and the variety of pro- meeting that it was the relatives of the mem- visions that form this legislative enactment are bers of the village land commissions who were difficult to enforce. Developments in the coun- getting the land. One is not prepared to say tryside reflect this attitude; but, for reasons I how true that statement was, but it is evidently hope to make clear, the fault is not altogether true that, with or without the support of the that of the officials. It is a well-known fact that, land commissions, some excess land tends to in conditions of overwhelming pressure on a gravitate into the hands of relatives of the con- limited acreage of rented land, enforcement of tributor of excess land. A case in Bali serves security of tenure provisions is extremely diffi- to highlight this. In our presence and in the cult. presence of a group of officials, a landowner The above statement, Mr. Minister, may stated that his 4 hectares of excess land went give you the impression that the enforcement to his brothers-in-law and nephews. An ex- of this part of the program is largely a failure. ainination of the certificate of ownership of Actually, we have encountered farmers with the "new" owners proved that-much to the written agreements; and, in one village, re- surprise of the local officials. ferred to by officials as a "pilot" village, we Such cases are in themselves no violations were told that 75 percent of the tenants work of the law-so long as such distributions find under written agreements. Assuming that this their way into the hands of relatives who culti- is so and that the agreements have been entered vated such lands as tenants prior to the enact- in good faith on both sides, fully reflecting the mient of the legislation. One of the provisions provisions of the legislation, the fact remains states, for example, that "farmers who have that the pilot village is the exception rather been related to the owner for not more than than the rule. In the vast majority of cases ten- two generations" have a prior claim to the ants have no written agreements; moreover, my redistributed land. More to the point is that inquiry into the subject leads me to the conclu- the eight or twelve (not clear to me just how sion that the written agreements do not neces- many) priorities and categories are too numer- sarily reflect the spirit of the legislation. When ous and complicated to administer, even for a a tenant or landlord is asked about the rate of well-intentioned village land commission. This rent, the invariable reply is "50 percent of the alone can very well be a source of evasion, crop." This "50 percent of the crop" is very although not necessarily deliberate evasion. A important because it is the basic provision of village land commission is presented with too the law. But what, in reality, is this 50 percent many choices, made more difficult by the fact of the crop? I was not convinced that the 50 that the acreage to be redistributed in most percent of the crop is what the tenant receives cases is very small. And it is the latter factor after all the expenses are shared equally be- more than any other factor or combination of tween owner and tenant. The picture in this re- factors that lies at the root of redistribution gard is very mixed. The answers to questions program difficulties. The same is true, as I shall on sharing are "yes" and "no," with emphasis presently point out, of the security of tenure on sharing the cost of fertilizer where such is part of the agrarian reform program. used. All else appears to be as of old. If one Even a brief familiarity with the work in adds to this the total number of written agree- the field leads one to the conclusion that, re- ments in all of Java and Bali is only 20,000 out 344 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 of a possible few millions of potential agree- being, and, if unchecked, is likely to grow with ments, it is quite obvious that the provisions of the passage of time. It is quite clear that more the security of tenure legislation are being agricultural workers and less tenants are not honored mostly in breach only. in the interest of the tenants, of the village Such, in the main, Mr. Minister, are the ob- community, and of any effort to raise agricul- servable results of the agrarian reform program rural production. as of the end of 1963. And not only "observ- The conceivable remedy, Mr. Minister, is able," for the official figures on land distribu- additional legislation giving the tenants "occu- tion and written agreements lend added sup- pancy" rights, thereby preventing the owner port to my conclusions. What of the conse- from removing him from the land (unless for quences of these developments? special and valid cause), or from shifting him There are a number of them and one worthy from one plot of land to another at will. If of the most serious consideration. I have in mind such a measure is enacted and enforced, the the fact that the land reform as it stands now bargaining power of the owner would decline, is causing a decline in the number of tenants that of the tenant would rise, and the basis for or sharecroppers and a corresponding increase the implementation of all the legislation's se- in the number of agricultural workers or curity of tenure provisions would be greatly coolies. The reason is not far to seek. Even strengthened. though the reform has affected the owner class Experience of other countries demonstrates very little, this same class knows (a) that the that owners oppose the "occupancy" right reform legislation exists and (b) that it can measure as much as they oppose the excess land be so amended as to reduce the permissible provision. But despite this prospect, and pre- retention to a lower figure. The owners know cisely because of the threat of the wholesale also that a tenant cultivating a given piece of replacement of tenants by coolies, the early land over a number of years might claim occu- enactment of the legislation discussed here and pancy right to that land and that some day a in the course of one of our talks is of the legislative enactment might sanction that. This highest importance. The fact that this measure explains the tendency on the part of the owners may not help the tenants already eliminated in Java-as elsewhere in somewhat similar argues very strongly for the speediest protec- circumstances-to proclaim themselves culti- tion of the remaining tenants. vators, or rather managers of the land once The inevitable consequence of what has worked by tenants. The latter become agri- been described in the preceding paragraphs cultural workers, descending to the lowest rung and of the small acreage actually distributed of the agricultural ladder. As such, they have and about to be distributed in 1964 is that the no possible claim to the land as tenants. I re- reform's anticipated changes in the social peat, Java and Bali are not unique in this re- composition of the villages constitute another spect; postwar Asia is full of instances where serious problem. This is far-reaching and sig- legislation enacted to elevate the position of nificant, for where such changes have taken the tenants economically and socially has had place, particularly in Japan and Taiwan, they the very opposite effect on the fortunes of have had immense psychological and economic many tenants. significance. Writing to you about this, Mr. The sample gathered in the course of the Minister, I need not go into any detailed ex- trip through Java illustrating the above point planations why this is so. Suffice it to say that is not large. Nevertheless, small though it is, it an owner of a piece of land of his own or a is relevant to the issue. An owner of five tenant secure on his rented land is the best hectares in Linbongan village of central Java surety of an attitude which can, if properly has no tenants any longer. Instead, he prefers utilized, determine the community's primary to work his land with 25 agricultural laborers, pattern of wants, consumption, production, in- a number of whom are his former tenants. vestment, farm management, technological in- Other examples could be cited, all telling the novations, credit, marketing, and, above all, the same story. While I am not prepared to say best use of available resources. In the final anal- how widespread this movement is, it is in ysis, what we mean by a good land reform is not Land Reform in Indonesia 345 so much the redistribution of land or security or that provision relating to new rentals (on of tenure per se, but all of this as an incentive the high side), permissible land retention to move from a static condition to one in (possibly high), and official land prices (too which the desire for economic and social self- low); but, considering the fact that the legisla- improvement can express itself. More specifi- tion had to reflect the political balance of cally, this is bound up with the question of forces on the one hand and socioeconomic agricultural productivity. To the extent that forces on the other, the legislation mirrors that the reform, at best, leaves the social composi- situation. I believe, therefore, that the prin- tion of the village unchanged, to that extent cipal agrarian reform provisions are about as it will be more difficult to deal with the prob- good as the ministry could have devised under lem of raising agricultural production. the circumstances. For the same reason, as well It takes a successful agrarian reform to bring as for a reason I shall mention subsequently, I that about. In this connection, Mr. Minister, I do not take seriously the criticism that the should like to point out that the significance retention limit is too high. And this is one of the Japanese agrarian reform, for example, of the major points upon which the legislative does not lie merely in the fact that so many enactment may be questioned. tenants became owners of so much land. Its No matter how good a reform law is, it is real significance lies in the fact that the shift no better than its enforcement. The field trip from a bad tenancy system to an ownership was too brief to enable me to render a care- system released all kinds of dormant energies fully considered opinion as to how good or bad inherent in a farmer who owns the land and the enforcement is, and my view in this matter wishes to make the most of it. The well-known is impressionistic and possibly hasty. Granting and tested proposition that a farmer who culti- this, I am, nevertheless, inclined to the view vates his own land or a tenant secure on his that the enforcement of the agrarian reform rented land "can turn sand into gold" is as true is not nearly as good as it might be. There is in our own day as it was in the seventeenth evidence to substantiate this. century when this observation was first made. I don't have to call your attention to the To be sure, even in Japan or Taiwan after the fact, Mr. Minister, that a good deal of the reforms, the attitude of the government to- success of the program depends upon the maxi- wards farmers and farming had to undergo a mum acreage available for distribution. Yet, decided and positive change in regard to price, my experience in the field, supported by data credit, and technical assistance policies of every in the possession of Agraria, leads me to the type and description in order to make the conclusion that in this important respect the agrarian reform meaningful, which is the at- local administration has not done nearly well tainment of agricultural rehabilitation in the enough. I have in mind the downward re- widest sense. In saying this, it is not my inten- visions of all of the first registrations or esti- tion to minimize the redistribution of land mates of the excess land earmarked for redis- factor or better tenurial conditions. On the con- tribution. This is true of every province. For trary, they are the preconditions of dealing west, central, and east Java, the first registra- with a stagnating peasant economy. tion called for 57,000, 22,000, and 56,000 In the preceding pages I indicated that the hectares of excess land, respectively; the second reform has fallen short of its mark. What needs registration or estimate now officially accepted to be considered now are the "whys" of this is 22,000, 11,000, and 22,000 hectares, re- state of affairs. I have already hinted at the spectively. causes and here I intend to spell them out in "Estimates" are made to be revised, par- some detail and with an eye to pointing out ticularly in instances where the data on land the one cause that matters most. ownership are so lacking in precision as is the It has happened time and again that an case in Indonesian peasant proprietorship. Re- agrarian law was so drawn that it precluded the visions, therefore, are not surprising. What realization of its well-intentioned purposes. I puzzled one before visiting the countryside is do not believe that this is true of the Indo- that they were always revisions downward. The nesian legislation. One may find fault with this trip revealed that the first registration was prob- 346 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 ably correct; and, if it erred, it was even then spirit of the law are carried out with maximum on the low side, since an undetermined acreage vigilance. which should have contributed to the pool of The reference to the price of land as a cause excess land had been divided up by the owners of evasion calls for elaboration. My notebook just prior to the enactment of legislation. contains many items on two sets of land prices, Naturally, the local administrators cannot be official and unofficial, the latter being the held responsible for that act. Their responsi- market price. In all cases the two diverge bility for accepting the second registration is widely, namely, official Rp45,000 and unofficial something else again. I say this because there Rp400,000; Rp55,000 and Rp600,000, while is evidence that the difference between the in one case the market price was supposedly as first and second registrations came as a result high as Rp2 million as against the official price of further family subdivision of properly ex- of Rp65,000 per hectare. The built-in resis- cess land, after the enactment of reform legis- tance to the pricing system and to parting with lation. In south Sumatra, for instance, checking the land is indeed very great. I raise this ques- the excess acreage registered by an owner is tion not in order to advocate a price that would almost impossible; great distances and lack of suit the owner of the land. In the long run, a transportation, if nothing else, preclude that. tenant has to pay for the land; and no tenant These conditions do not apply in Java. Be- in Indonesia, or for that matter in any part of sides, the records of the owners and the area Asia, could possibly meet the burden of the that they own are being maintained fairly market price of land. If he could meet that satisfactorily in connection with the assess- condition, there would be no point in insti- ment and collection of land tax. It should have tuting land reform programs. Hence reforms been possible to determine from these records the world over with pricing schemes favoring the owners who hold land above the ceiling the tenants, the burden largely shouldered by and the surplus land which was to have been the owner. Viewed thus, the land price policy acquired from them. Greater official care could in Indonesia makes sense, but only if the dif- have prevented the "disappearance" of some ference between the official and unofficial prices of this land. is not so wide as to make the former con- It is common knowledge in the field that fiscatory. My impression is that the latter is the retention limit has been subject to much true and that it serves to explain, at least in a evasion. This could not have been done with- measure, one of the difficulties of enforcement. out the support of local officials, particularly One of the readily observable facts in the the lurah, and including the local land con- course of our trips was the little information missions. It is one of the reasons, though not available to the farmers about the basic pro- the most important one, why so very little of visions of the agrarian reform program. the land available for redistribution comes Whether a village has excess land for redis- from the average resident owners with some- tribution or not, surely all of them should be what more than the permissible limit. The involved in the security of tenure part of the main source of the excess land is the absentee program; and its highlights should be placed owners, nobility, and hadjis. For example, in at the disposal of the farmers on the widest Brelis Regency of central Java, the 1,200 possible basis and in the manner we discussed hectares of excess land came from 1,071 the other day. Laws tend to be complicated, and owners; but a breakdown of the figures shows a graphic presentation of its ABC's in such a that 15 owners of the type mentioned provided manner that even an illiterate farmer could from 50 to 75 hectares each, or most of the grasp its essentials is an important part of the excess land. The evasions are a common phe- enforcement process. This should be a primary nomenon practiced by the economic man who concern of the land reform commissions, but naturally doesn't want to divest himself of his my impression is that this has not been the property at a compulsory price which bears no case. This type of education, which is normally relation to the "going" market price. However, part of an intended fundamental change, is this doesn't excuse the enforcers of the law in mainly conspicuous by its absence. the field from seeing that the letter and the Part and parcel of the failure to provide Land Reform in Indonesia 347 useful information for the benefit of the ten- 4. Committee on Land Reform, First Level, ants is the poor performance of the land corn- east Java, Surabaja missions in promoting the security of tenure 5. Land Reform Committee, Second Level at program. While I realize that such programs the respective locations .are difficult to carry out, the land commissions 6. The relevant district land reform com- could have done much better than the prepara- mittees tion of only 20,000 agreements, many of them 7. The relevant governor, resident, and regent of a dubious character. It is true that the land S. Chief of agricultural control and regional distribution procedures are complicated, but agriculture 'the acreage involved in most villages is too 9. Chief of inspection of land registration, small to keep a commission busily occupied Malang throughout the year. Additionally, most of the 10. Chief of inspection of land registration, villages have no excess land to deal with, and Surabaja the land commissions could, if they so wished, 11. Chief of the Office of Land Registration devote their efforts to a more substantial attain- in Pasaruan ment in creating better tenurial conditions, a 12. Executive officer of land reform gifts, problem affecting all villages of Java, Bali, and Jakarta the rice plains of south Sumatra. Part of the ex- 13. Chief of Farmer's and Fisheries Coopera- planation is that in all our talks with officials tives Bank, Pasaruan and farmers, land reform stands for land redis- 14. Financial inspector, Bogor tribution above all, despite the fact that the 15. Office of Land Taxes, Malang prevalence of tenancy in Java and Bali de- mands that the means of living of the tenants I leave to you to judge if this wide- and their employment be treated with the spread proliferation of authority is a means to utmost concern, protecting them against the strengthen the cause of the reform. On the overwhelmingly strong position of the land- other hand, recalling a talk with a chief of owners. This attitude on the part of the local agrarian inspection of one of the provinces, administration, on top of the admittedly in- the mere task of communicating with so many herent difficulties of bringing about better agencies is a difficult task. It seems to this ob- tenure conditions, explains in large part why server that the immediate responsibilities of this part of the land reform program has enforcing so difficult a program in the country- yielded poor results. side call for the utmost concentration of effort, A few other items gathered in the field may and anything that tends to detract from the be of some further interest to you, Mr. Minister. effort or disperse it is not in the best interest What stands out is the slowness in the pro- of the program. cedures of determining the amount of excess No one in the field denies the validity of land: Who is to get the land; the issuing of No oe n he i nith all idty o the certificates of acquisition to the new own- the gos com won compla in a name th ers; the large number of public organizations grea rm a bew e an ing i somehow involved in the program; and, conse- excess land to a new owner and providing him quently, the large volume of paper work. For with a certificate of ownership. A year of wait- example, the chief of agriculture inspection, ing is not rare. The process is circular and east Java, communicates a tenant's acquisition cumbersome, and it goes something like this: of a plot of excess land to the following fifteen the Village Land Reform Committee, District organizations: Regency, Provincial Inspection Agraria, Pro- vincial Committee on Land Reform, First 1. The minister of agriculture in Jakarta Level, then the bupati with his alleged ten- 2. The central land reform committees in dency to take much time to affix his signature, Jakarta then to the Village Land Reform Committee 3. The Committee on Supervision and Con- once again-and to the would-be new owner, trol over Implementation of Land Reform This is not to say that we have not seen farmers in Jakarta with the certificates of ownership; all that needs 348 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-19CA to be underscored here is that getting them is and "ignorant" tenants cannot fulfill such func- a major exercise and a slow one. tions has little validity. They know where their The Village Land Reform Committees, as interests lie; with strong government backing, nothing else, make the difference between im- they would defend them. Experience has shown plementation of what can be implemented and that this can be the case; it has also demon- nonimplementation. As of now, Mr. Minister, strated something else, namely, that the proper they must be credited mostly with nonimple- work of a land reform committee can give rise mentation, and the reason lies in the composi- to an indispensable type of adult education tion of a committee made up of the village which no formal schooling can compete with. headman and two representatives of national I refer to the likely emergence of a new lead- farm groups. These three, usually landowners, ership, tested on issues vitally affecting the do not necessarily represent the interests of the village and which is so badly needed to sustain sharecroppers. The peasants themselves, for any other major program of rural rehabilitation whose benefit the government of Indonesia de- your ministry is bound to undertake. vised the reform, do not participate in its im- As indicated earlier, in Bali the picture is plementation. It is imperative that they do somewhat brighter on the redistribution side, play that role in the light of the following principally because Of the proportionately main functions of a committee: (a) deter- greater prevalence of princely land within mining the amount of excess land in each ready reach. From the point of view of security village and its suitability, (b) drafting the of tenure conditions. Bali doesn't differ from purchase plan and establishing the eligibility Java; the same difficulties prevail and for the of purchasers, (c) deciding cases requiring same reasons already pointed out. unusual or special treatment and approving South Sumatra, Mr. Minister, is indeed a cases of exemption from the purchase provi- special case, which you so well summed up sion, and (d) implementing the security of during our first meeting in early December. tenure provisions. You stated then that the problem in Sumatra All these activities call for intimate knowl- is one, to quote you, "of finding people to give edge of conditions relating to such basic mat- land to." Brief though my stay in south SL- ters as who owns what land and who rents matra was, I learned enough to testify to the whose land. Only a coimittee composed of a correctness of your remark. number of tenants and owners directly in- South Sumatra impressed me as an on- volved in the reform can deal with the rele- charred sea of land of all types and descrip- vant issues of implementation. But for a tions and of customs of ownership which have committee to be effective, a number of pre- little in common with those of Java. The ex- conditions are called for. They are as follows: ception one finds is in the Iawab plains around (a) The tenants and the owners on a commit- Metro, developed by the Javanese immigrants tee should be popularly elected by their respec- of three decades ago or more. There, as in Java, tive groups; (b) whatever the size of a the holdings are of the order of two hectares, committee, and it can be as large as ten, the maximum, and much less, mostly one-half tenants must have a majority representation; hectare in size. There, too, more than half of and (c), if "(b)" is to have meaning and not the land is cultivated by sharecroppers or agri- be submerged by fears of the owner group, the cultural laborers, and there is no sign of any committee must have the fullest backing of all application of the provisions to improve the the judicial and police resources of the govern- conditions of the sharecroppers. But, in the ment. Barring that, there would be no point of main, the agricultural economy of south Su- creating a committee with emphasis on the imatra is not based on wet paddy fields but on tenantry as the principal implementor of the the type of dry land of which there is an reform. abundance, managed by the clans and sub- There iay be another way, Mr. Minister, of divided among its members as the need arises. dealing with enforcement, but I wish to under- Redistribution of land in terms of the agrarian score that the existing method is not working reforms as applied in Java barely enters into at all. The often-heard argument that illiterate the picture. For this reason, south Sumatra's Land Reform in Indonesia 349 reported 13,000 hectares of excess land (of an less than one-half of a hectare, and possibly 90 estimated million hectares of cultivated land) percent of all the rice-land owners belong in and 1,200 hectares supposedly already dis- the category of less than one hectare. On the tributed do not reflect the potential of the other side of the scale are the fraction of one region. However, this doesn't matter one way percent of all owners who possess more than or another. The fact is that in conditions of 5 hectares each. Since peasant proprietorship great abundance of land and the existing tradi- in Java ranging from 5, 10, 15, and 20 hectares tional method of land subdivision by the clan, is indeed minute, it must be recognized that the land reform program can have but little land redistribution in Java has a very inade- application in south Sumatra. quate base for the current agrarian reform pro- In summary, it is clear that, when we talk gram. about reform, we mean reform in Java. That One might construe from all of the above is where the pressure of a huge population on that the reform is not a success and that noth- a limited acreage lies. The soft spots of the ing much more need to be done about it. This program in Java have been noted; and suffice impression is subject to serious qualifications it to say here that, taken together, they explain, if one draws a line between what can and can- if in part only, why the program has not done not be done in the agrarian reform field of well. With drive and determination on the of Indonesia. While there cannot be all success, part of the local administration, better results there need not be a state approaching failure. might have been attained both on the excess I believe, for example, that with an abiding of land side and improved tenurial conditions. interest and effort it would be possible for the I speak of "better" results only rather than of local administration to get more excess land the realization of the principal aims, for it for redistribution as well as to speed up the seems to me that even a perfect administrative entire process of implementation. It is one machine imbued with missionary zeal couldn't thing to recognize the difficulties of improving bring about all the far-reaching aims of the the terms under which the sharecroppers work enacted legislation. somebody else's land, but it is an entirely dif- The reason or the "true cause" for this con- ferent thing to display little or no interest in clusion lies in the all-important fact that there the matter-as has been so amply demon- simply is not enough land in Java for a sig- strated. While it is not possible, therefore, to nificant land redistribution program. This carry out this part of the program as originally would hold true even if the maximum permis- intended, it is possible to do much more than sible retention limit were cut in half. Further- the record of recent date indicates. Hence my more, so long as the rural population con- conclusion, Mr. Minister, that the immediate tinues to grow at the current rate, competing issue is not one of overlooking or accepting for a virtually fixed area of 9 million hectares the reform difficulties as if they were all ines- of cultivated land, the attainment of better capable but of doing more and better of what tenure conditions is a very difficult task. In is possible within the admittedly serious limi- short, though a confirmed land reformer, I am tations of too many people on too little land. of the opinion that the real issue in Java (and Mr. Minister, in the course of this letter, Bali) is not land redistribution but population I made repeated references to agricultural redistribution on the one hand and a break- productivity. I am aware that you haven't through in agricultural productivity on the charged me with any duties in that regard, but other. no interested observer traveling in your coun- There is nothing startling in this thought, tryside or thinking of your food situation now Mr. Minister, and I have tried to point this out and in the years to come can fail to take note in our talks. Although not all the important of these facts: that the peasant agricultural data on land ownership and distribution are economy is in a state of stagnation and, by the available, numerous and detailed village in- same token, agricultural productivity is at a vestigations, not to speak of my own observa- low ebb. It is to this subject that I take the tions in the field, all point to the fact that pos- privilege of addressing myself very briefly. sibly 75 percent of all the rice landholders own There is nothing that I can tell you about these 350 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 problems that is either revealing or new to and its relationship to higher productivity are you. If I trouble you to look at the obvious directly related to our discussion. Despite an once again, it is only in the hope of being of increase of rice imports from about 0.9 million some assistance to you in your effort to place tons in 1962 to about 1.2 million tons in 1963, the question of agricultural rehabilitation and net availabilities of rice in Indonesia declined productivity where it belongs-in the very from just under 10 million tons in 1962 to only center of the national economic issues. about 9 million tons in 1963. The resulting A tradition-bound agricultural peasantry, sharp rise of rice prices, as of other foods, is accustomed to a village subsistence economy, too well known to call for comment. Weather has been both an obstacle to economic develop- conditions in the current crop year being some- ment and a partial safeguard against crises. It what unfavorable, one can hardly anticipate a may well follow from this proposition that crop of more than 8 million tons, which is the country "can take it," even if agricultural likely to raise imports to 1.3 or 1.5 million production doesn't show any significant in- tons. The drain on the foreign exchange posi- crease in yields. I realize that this is not your tion of the country is quite obvious, for the view, Mr. Minister, and that you have striven prospect of spending 125 to 150 million dol- to increase yields in every possible way. Sta- lars for food imports is little short of one-third tistically, and with the good fortune of favor- of all export earnings. There are other conse- able weather conditions and some increase in quences of a social, economic, and political acreage, rice production between 1957 and nature which go with food shortages and high 1963 shows a steady if small rise in produc- prices but they need not be touched upon here. tion. However, production goals of more than This, in brief, is the current picture. 10 million tons for 1962 have not been ful- To some who remember the food shortage filled, and the great goal of nearly 16 million of 1961, the present situation doesn't seem tons in 1968-and self-sufficiency-is not serious, the argument being that the current likely to be attained. Considering also the sharp difficulties are mainly induced by unsatisfactory increase in population, the per capita intake climatic conditions and unusual rat infestation of all principal foods in Java and Madura has of the fields, both temporary phenomena, and declined from 209 2 kilograms in 1936-40 to the inflationary pressures which, one hopes, 172 kilograms in 1956-60. The conclusion is might be overcome sooner rather than later. warranted that one of the consequences of the As I see it, Mr. Minister, this argument is of traditional-though intensive-system of land limited application only. The point is that even use is that food production has not kept pace if these adverse factors didn't exist the food with the population growth. problem would persist because its origin is The above doesn't imply that the core of the not due to temporary causes but to the lasting difficulty lies in your traditional land-use sys- combination of normally low yields, a so far tem. On the contrary, one is impressed by the very limited expansion of acreage under food- skill and ingenuity of your farmers in using crops, and of a rising population of 2.5 to 3 the land as they do with the means at their million a year. Even on the basis of 80 kilo- disposal. But the means, as you know, are in- grams of rice per person a year as against the adequate to the demands placed upon them; required 90 to 100 kilograms, the annual addi- and rice yields, for example, are only slightly tional rice requirement in the years immedi- bigger than those in a number of Asian coun- arely ahead is between 200,000 and 250,000 tries where an extensive type of cultivation tons. On the basis of this conservative estimate, prevails and where soil and rainfall conditions the country's imports in 1968 or 1969 may are less favorable than those in Java. I am not well amount to a minimum of 2 million tons- speaking of Japan, where rice yields are unless agricultural productivity, which is to roughly three times those of Java. say overall agricultural rehabilitation, begins The immediate future of the food problem to register a decided step forward. A country doesn't have to be self-sufficient in food if it earns in other ways the means to 2. Total rice equivalent of cereals and roots. pay for the food deficit. But even in such Land Reform in Indonesia 351 countries, the food deficit is not necessarily a industrialization on the part of a number of result of inadequate use of the land. Since less developed countries had to be tempered by your country, Mr. Minister, is not yet in that recognition that their agricultural economies comfortable position of trading, so to speak, must be strengthened if economic develop- .one resource for another, a major attempt to ment, as a whole, is to advance at a desirable raise the productivity of the land in order to pace. India is a good example of this, and even meet the food deficit is the more imperative. a highly industrialized Japan has seen fit to There is another vital reason why this support agriculture to the hilt. Your country, should be so; I have in mind the condition of Mr. Minister, need be no exception to this, the peasantry, the vast majority of your coun- and your national economy will make prog- try's population. Indonesia is indeed a richly ress if it rests on the firm basis of industry, endowed country; but one of the most striking plantation agriculture, and peasant agriculture. impressions of the rural districts of Java, par- From all of the above, Mr. Minister, it fol- ticularly of central and east Java, of Bali, and lows that the day has indeed come for your of south Sumatra, is that large numbers of government to center its attention not only on your farmers are in difficult economic straits. imports as an unavoidable measure in a time Small holdings-even if owned-and the share- of food crisis but also to center its attention cropping system are primary causes of diffi- above all on the overriding propositions that culties. Additionally, they are greatly accentu- the productivity of peasant agriculture must be ated by the fact that the land produces one ton measurably increased. There is no other way of food where two could be produced. Small- out of the problem of achieving a sufficiency of scale agriculture is not by itself an impediment food produced domestically, of improving the to higher productivity; the cases of Japan and economic condition of your peasantry, and of Taiwan are well known. The conclusion is that the important role it must play in the national the higher yields or better use of the land plus economy as a whole if its advance is to be in- better safeguards of the rights of the tenants sured. The three elements which are so vital would indeed serve to improve the economic to the welfare of Indonesia can be made to go condition of your farming population as well together, for in effect they are interdependent. as to provide more food for the country as a The inevitable question arising from the whole. above is: How does one go about increasing Last, but not least, yet another consideration agricultural production? Although I raise the enters the picture: the role of peasant agri- question, I do not intend to answer it; I leave culture in the national economy. There is a the answer to more technically competent widespread idea carried over from the past that people, at the same time mindful of the fact agriculture in Indonesia is plantation agricul- that your ministry, as ministries the world ture, one of the country's principal claims to over, does not lack for lengthy prescriptions of wealth and fame. While not denying the great what to do in this regard. I will add only that in role of this type of agriculture in meeting some the generally favorable soil and climatic condi- of the country's needs, it cannot do what only tions of Java, your knowledgeable farmers the great mass of the people-the peasants- would make the most of the well-known in- must do on their land, for themselves, and for gredients of agricultural rehabilitation. After the nation. Though certain advances in peasant all, despite the conservatism of peasant socie- agriculture are undeniable, it is fair to say that ties of which the Javanese farmers furnish an 60 or 70 percent of the people are engaged in example, your farmers have successfully in- a neglected, retarded, largely subsistence-based corporated exotic crops into their agriculture agriculture. So long as this continues, with in- without much difficulty. While leaving the comes and purchasing power restricted, any answers of what to do to others, I wish to progress in other segments of the economy is mention in passing one point: the agroeco- bound to be adversely affected. nomic survey your ministry is intent on under- There is ample evidence furnished by other taking. I cannot think of a better beginning countries of Asia in support of this conclusion. than taking stock of your agricultural resources More recently, the great enchantment with as a case for the planning and implementation 352 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 of an agricultural productivity program. There Failing that, the chances of attaining the prin- is no substitute for such preparatory work, and cipal goals are indeed questionable. its value cannot be overestimated. It may seem to you that I overstress the role My purpose in raising the question of of the government, but my fairly long experi- higher productivity is not to spell out a relevant ence in dealing with somewhat similar prob- program; I am cognizant of your long-standing lems elsewhere tells me that no major effort preoccupation with this problem. My immedi- in the field of agricultural development can be ate concern is as I indicated earlier: the fullest undertaken and successfully carried out with- commitment on the part of your government out the kind of commitment I am talking to treat the condition of peasant agriculture as about-and commitment, first of all, at the a prime, national problem. If viewed in this highest level of government. This is the start- light, an attitude can be created which makes ing point, and I write this in the hope that the difference between success and failure. The this starting point will be secured as the pre- kind of position taken by the government condition for all the tasks that lie ahead of you. should stand for a number of things and, to Mr. Minister, I know only too well that in begin with, ample budgetary support for agri- our talks and in this letter I did not prove to culture. I was surprised the other day when be a bearer of cheerful news. On the contrary, you told me how small your budget was for you may look upon me as a Cassandra, piling what is expected of your ministry. The ap- you with problem upon problem. However, I proach I am advocating means something more hope you will agree that my views do not re- than a larger budget; it can and should mean flect the mere whims of the pessimist. Reali- fighting' for the cause of better agriculture ties as I encountered them are the basis of my as one would fight a war meant to be won. appraisal. I may have misconstrued them a . possibility I do nor rule out. On the other With such an attitude it should not be difficult , p iflthy a s nth ae to be ohil ..' hand, if they are as they appear to be, you will Mr. Minister, to equate the needs for fertilizer, give my findings, analysis, and suggestions your better seed, agricultural experiment work, irri- careful consideration. gation facilities, credit, and so forth with the Finally, I cannot end this letter without needs for armaments in waging war-and in this telling you how deeply I appreciate the never- instance a protracted war. At best, the moderni- failing goodwill you have shown me. This has zation of a tradition-ridden agricultural econ- been a source of great encouragement; and, if omy, unlike industrial development, is a long I have failed to give you the kind of assistance drawn-out affair; and the government must be you expected, the fault, I am sure, lies entirely prepared for a long and active commitment. with me. 46. The Industrialization Bias in Economic Development Early in 1964 Ladejinsky participated in a Conference on World Tensions. From a summary of his remarks I have selected for presentation here the five concluding paragraphs. They express very well his views on the unfortunate results of the overemphasis developing countries have generally placed on industrialization as the high road to development and the need to redress the imbalance "so that industry and agriculture may constitute, as indeed they must, the base upon which an effective national economy must rest." THE DISCOURAGING HISTORY of agrarian re- ate future. Yet, the prospects are not without form in Asia doesn't speak well for its immedi- a silver lining, mainly because in a rapidly The Industrialization Bias in Economic Development 353 changing world the status quo in the country- third of those of Japan or Taiwan. In condi- side cannot be preserved and is bound to give tions of rapidly rising populations and grave way. It is the experience of this observer that food shortages in a number of countries, this an increasing number of landlords are cogni- condition is not only keeping the peasantry in zant of this and are not of an easy mind about poverty but is also becoming a serious and the shape of things to come. In this connec- increasing drain on a country's foreign ex- tion the legislative enactments with all their change reserves as well as a drawback on a faults of commission and omissions are not country's overall economic development. More- altogether a waste of effort. The mere pre- over, even in the surplus food-producing coun- occupation with reform is on the plus side, tries, the economy of the peasant owner is far pointing to the fact that the issue will not just from a dynamic one, which is to say one of fade away. The question is how to speed up rising yields, rising purchasing power, and a the process in order to preclude a disorderly or stimulant to economic development in general. revolutionary takeover of the landlords' land What makes for improved agriculture is no and all that a violent act brings in its wake. secret and need not detain us here. One doesn't For the time being the landless peasantry, know of a single ministry of agriculture in the discontented though it is, cannot on its own region which hasn't in its files all the necessary generate sufficient political influence to redress prescriptions for a better agriculture. Yet, rela- the balance in the countryside. It is not yet tively little has been done, and not only be- a source of authority and a mainspring of cause the conversion of a traditional peasant change. The change can come about in one of society to a somewhat more technical base is two ways: under the leadership of the Com- fraught with major difficulties. More immedi- munists, whose expertise in using the land ately to the point is another roadblock, namely, issue for their political ends is well known, the heavy bias in favor of industrialization in or under the leadership presently in power. the typical underdeveloped, agrarian country, Since Communism in free Asia is not yet as against setting its agrarian house in order. strong enough to seize the initiative, it be- This approach, favored by planners and econo- hooves the existing governments to do what mists, both Western and Asian, has tended to they have failed to do so far, while it is not retard the much-needed agricultural effort. This too late. If this is to be done, and with dis- criticism is not leveled against industrialization patch, the first order of business is a proper as such; its usefulness is all too obvious. What political climate, which only a dominating po- is at issue is the overemphasis on industrializa- litical group or country can create. Assuming tion in relation to agriculture. Moreover, this its presence, many of the impediments standing bias is not a mere theoretical concept. It is con- in the way of an effective reform, including cretely expressed in terms of the relative allo- landlord opposition, can be overcome. How- cations of scarce development resources, ever, this need not imply that a break in the whether indigenous, borrowed, or in the form cake of custom and tradition will be attained of gifts. In largely agrarian Asia this approach democratically, peacefully, solely through the is an economic and political fallacy which, if due process of law. The creators of the favor- persisted in, is bound to lead-has already able pro-reform climate must be prepared to led-to serious stresses and strains affecting the resort to all the institutional resources of the progress of developing countries. country and willing, if need be, to act "un- The inescapable fact is that, even with democratically." Communist China excluded from this picture, Agrarian reform and higher agricultural 70 to 75 percent of Asia's vast population is productivity are closely interrelated. But what peasants. There is no denying the leavening is also true is that stagnation of peasant agri- effects of ambitious postwar schemes for in- culture is a widespread phenomenon in Asia, dustrialization and the material benefits the even where the reform problem doesn't loom factory is already bringing to numbers of large or is nonexistent. Its most telling expres- Asians. Nevertheless, for years to come, in- sion are low yields, and that of the principal dustry, however rapidly developed, can make foodgrain-rice-is only approximately one- at best only a relatively small dent on the 354 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 agrarian character of underdeveloped Asia. attention it deserves, with consequences all too Agriculture, not industry, will continue to be apparent. It is easy to blame the traditional the pivot of Asia's economic life; to disregard character of a peasant economy, but this serves this is to court grave difficulties already appar- no good purpose either for the peasants or ent in one of the biggest countries of the for industry or for a country's general welfare. continent. The fact is that the peasant can be an inno- In light of the above and while search- vator, and there is ample evidence that through ing for answers to problems of political and underpropitious circumstances he has become economic instability, the time has indeed come one, even if not on a large scale. And the refer- to treat the rehabilitation of peasant agricul- ence here is not to the well-known cases of tural economies with surely as much concern Japan and Taiwan; pockets of innovation in and priority as the problems of industrialization other Asian countries demonstrate this as well. have enjoyed. It is a welcome sign of the times But to enlarge these pockets so as to encompass that India, for example, is beginning to do just a country's entire agriculture, initiative, en- that. But this issue is far from resolved-even thusiasm, and above all appropriate resource in principle-in the greater part of the con- allocations must be provided by planners, tinent. Admittedly, it is far easier to build the economists, and national governments to a de- most complex industrial undertaking and make gree comparable to that accorded to industriali- it work than it is to induce the "average" zation. Failing this, there is little chance that farmers of a country to become innovators.' the line of demarcation between city and vil- The relative ease in the first instance doesn't lage will ever be bridged or that nonagricul- argue for the neglect or only inadequate pre- tural developmental activities will ever attain occupation with the more difficult task. By and their ultimate aims. Hence the conclusion that large, peasant agriculture has not received the the existing imbalance in the treatment of in- dustry and agriculture must be redressed so that 1. [Many a reader, surely, will be inclined to industry and agriculture may constitute, as in- challenge this statement. At the least it would ap- deed they must, the base upon which an effec- pear to call for some qualification.) tive national economy must rest. 47. Land Reform This is a seminal paper, not to be missed by anyone interested in the subject. Here are Ladejinsky's views on the meaning and content of agrarian reform, security of tenure and rent reduction, ceilings and land redistribution, methods of land purchase and tenant repayment, implementation, land reform and productivity, the prospects and pressures for reform, and more. The piece complements and at the same time considerably overlaps his "Agrarian Reform in Asia" (CB-94) of a few months earlier. Unable to provide space for both, I have concluded that this one simply could not be omitted. The paper was prepared for presentation to a Conference on Productivity and Innovation in Agriculture in Underdeveloped Countries held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 29 through August 7, 1964. The proceedings were published under the title Policies for Promoting Agricultural Development, edited by David Hapgood (Cambridge, Mass., 1965). LAND REFORM DEALS WITH the adjustment tenure system. When the system of land tenure of a cultivator's relations to the land in a land in predominantly agricultural countries pro- Land Reform 355 vides the cultivator with a reasonable reward land in the hands of the relatively few who for his efforts, it stands for economic, social, have it; absence of any chance for advance- and political stability in the countryside and ment within agriculture; little margin for risk- very often, and by the same token, in the taking; and subsistence farming with a lack country as a whole. The obverse is true when of dynamic or regenerative capacity. the system of landholding denies the cultivator Many of these conditions are due to insti- the conditions under which he can secure for tutional land arrangements over which the himself a reward for his labor commensurate peasant has no control. An exploitative system with his role as a producer. In the main and of tenancy prevails in most countries of the with more recent notable exceptions such as underdeveloped world. Rack renting and in- Japan, Taiwan, and Egypt, the latter condition security of tenure are its hallmarks, and gov- still prevails in many parts of Asia, Latin ernments and their judicial bodies have given America, and the Near East. This state of official sanction to this type of tenant-landlord affairs was accepted as "normal" only a few relationship through the centuries. The farmers decades ago, but this is no longer the case. The have been obliged to pay exorbitant rentals be- pressure for change in the status quo has been cause the compelling need for any kind of em- rising, and most countries beset by tenure ployment depresses wages and raises rents. Nor problems are now preoccupied with the crucial is their contract of tenancy, which is supposed issue of how to change their land tenure sys- to ensure security of tenure for the tenant for tems in greater consonance with the improve- a specified period, often worth the paper it is ment of the cultivator's standard of living, the written on. In most cases the contracts are oral. improvement of the land, and greater agricul- But whether written or oral, they can be abro- rural productivity. The issue is the more diffi- gated at the whim of the landlord. The incen- cult because, at least in Asia, the scale of tive to improve the land and produce more farming is very small, particularly so on tenant- does not exist, nor is there a place for creative operated farms. One to three fragmented acres technology on a wide scale. To the extent that is often the rule. Although Japan and Taiwan these conditions preclude a measure of equali- have managed to create a technology and eco- zation of opportunities, they stifle progressive nomic and social institutions to suit their con- impulses and tend to underwrite stagnation in ditions, for the greater part of Asia this is still agriculture. a far cry from reality. More often than not Farmers have never been satisfied with this they are "uneconomic farms," uneconomic in state of affairs. They have often expressed their the sense that they fall below the subsistence discontent overtly against persons and govern- minimum rather than the technical optimum. ments that they believed were the causes of their distress. But in the main until the end of World War II, in Asia, Latin America, and the The Present Condition Middle East the conservatism and inertia of the farmer and his ingrained feudal subservi- The current search for adjustment of the land ence to the state and the landlord kept the pot tenure systems stems from the circumstances from boiling over. More recently and at least under which vast numbers of farmers live and in part under the threat of Communism, the work somebody else's land. The principal bonds that kept the peasant down are loosen- features that characterize the tenants' plight ing under rising agrarian discontent, both are stagnating agricultural economies; scarce covert and overt. Country after country is land, yet concentrated in few hands; low yields struggling with these problems: how to relieve but high rents; poor farmers but expensive the plight of cultivators working for a pittance, farms; too many people living on too little land how to revive depressed agricultural econo- and small holdings get smaller under rising mies, how to root the peasant securely and pressure of population with no alternative oc- beneficially on the land he cultivates. These cupations; inadequate tools, indebtedness and problems have close bearing on agricultural usury, malnutrition and illiteracy; keen coin- productivity and economic development in petition among the peasants seeking scarce general. 356 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 The Meaning of Agrarian Reform and rent reduction, and the redistribution of land among the tenants. In Asia, except Japan The answer to the questions posed is broadly and Taiwan, great stress is laid on security of known as "agrarian reform." The term conveys tenure and rent reduction, while in the Middle many things to many people. To the Commu- East and Latin America the stress is on land nists, agrarian reform is simple enough: It is redistribution and the creation of peasant a means to political power, based on a promise proprietorship. No country approaches the con- to the peasant of the one thing he wants most- tent of either main measure in the same way. ownership of the landlord's land-in exchange but the meaning of its approach depends upon for his badly needed political support. To the the answer to this basic question: For whose non-Communist world, agrarian reform in- benefit and for how large a group of benefici- volves such issues as who owns or does not aries is the reform designed? If the reform is own land, how it is used, who gets what out indeed one for the benefit of the great ma- of the land, the productivity of the land, the jority of the tenants, its specific content and its rate of economic development, and, addition- enforcement will differ substantially from a re- ally, social status and political power. form attempting to satisfy both landlord and No single panacea will deal with all these tenant in the difficult conditions of scarcity of issues effectively. In conditions of rural poverty land, land monopoly, pressure of the farm even redistribution of the land will not suffice population on the land, high rentals, high unless it is accompanied by the necessary means land values, and subsistence and unremunera- to work and improve the land. It follows that tive farming. The Japanese and Taiwanese countries that carry out land redistribution reforms reflect a thoroughly pro-tenant atti- programs must make great efforts to increase rude. Hence they emphasized ownership of agricultural investment, particularly if their land for the majority of tenants through the rate of population increase is fast. The eco- abolition of absentee ownership altogether and nomic opportunity and psychological incentives a low permissible retention of land (ceiling) that come with possession of the land or se- for resident landlords, genuine security of curity of tenure must go hand in hand with tenure and low rentals for the remaining ten- a host of other developmental measures. For ants, arbitrary and low valuation of land this reason agrarian reform in the sense con- prices, easy repayment terms, and a type of sidered here encompasses all or most of the enforcement in which the tenants play a following elements: distribution of land among major role in order to ensure a minimum of the landless; security of tenure and fair rents; evasion of the principal provisions of the re- and better methods of cultivation through form legislation. These reforms involved drastic technological improvements, adequate credit, redistribution of property, income, political cooperative marketing, and other measures. power, and social status at the expense of the However, it must be stressed that not all these landlords. This was the purpose of the reforms, elements are of equal importance. The most the basic proposition being that half measures important is land ownership. If this is absent, or attempts to satisfy both parties could not all else may prove ephemeral, including se- bring about conditions inder which those who curity of tenure and rent reduction-measures cultivate the land would enjoy the fruit of extremely difficult to enforce. This explains their labor. why in the final analysis the issue is one of land to the landless. This is the real vehicle of security and opportunity upon which a more Security of Tenure and Rent Reduction resourceful economy can be built. It is axiomatic that great population pressure on scarce land brings about keen competition The Content of Agrarian Reform for the right to cultivate a plot of land. The result is that rents are high and security of In most instances the content of enabling re- tenure is low. Rents in Asia, for instance, of form legislation is twofold: security of tenure 50, 60, or 70 percent of the crop are common Land Reform 357 even when the landlord contributes only the plot of land in order to eke out any kind of land while all other elements of production are living. furnished by the tenants. In such circumstances Security of tenure is part and parcel of rent the bargaining power is all on the side of the reduction, and all reform legislation aims to landlords; they are not obliged and cannot be give stronger protection to a tenant's occu- compelled to give tenants binding security of pancy rights. Like rents, such measures vary tenure for a specified period of time. Insecurity considerably although they have such common of tenure combined with high rents adversely prescriptions as written leases, specified periods affect agricultural productivity, not to speak of occupancy, and compensation for useful of the tenant's welfare. If this situation is to improvements. be reversed, a situation must be created that leads to a reasonable ratio between the farmer's share in the effort and costs of production and Tenant Rights on Taiwan his share in the crop produced. Coupled with this must be the appreciation of the fact that Taiwan, more than any other country concerned the margins of subsistence are so narrow that with the problem, provides the best tenant oc- tenants can afford little risk; any innovation cupancy rights. The Taiwanese law provides in production practices that goes wrong may that farm lease contracts (of six years' dura- result in starvation tion) shall not be terminated before their ex- Rent reduction and security of tenure is one piration except under any one of the following form of agrarian reform. Existing reforms do conditions: (a) if the tenant dies without an not reveal any common standard upon which heir; (b) if the tenant waives his right of a reasonable rental may be based. Each country cultivation by migrating elsewhere or chang- or, in the case of India, each state deals with ing his occupation; (c) if the tenant fails to the problem in its own way. Some maximum pay a total of two years' rent. Such safeguards rentals are 25 percent of the crop in Japan, extend to tenants even after the expiration of 37.5 percent in Taiwan, 50 percent in Nepal, the lease. The law provides that the landlord and in India from 16 to 50 percent. The "why" cannot take back the leased land for his own of the range of these rents stems from the cultivation on the expiration of the contract natural assumption that the smaller the rent if any one of the following conditions exist: the greater is the benefit to the tenant. They the landlord cannot till the land himself; the have virtually nothing to do with an appor- landlord's income is sufficient to support his tionment of rent among the various factors that family; or the landlord's action in taking back go into the growing of a crop. Rents are of the land deprives the tenant's family of its sub- either the "fixed" type, a stated quantity re- sistence. gardless of the harvest, or the crop-sharing For all practical purposes this means that tenants can remain on the land undisturbed type, a percentage of the crop. From the point even after the expiration of the contract, which of view of the tenant, crop sharing makes sense .nTia ital nue h nocmn where there is the danger of recurring crop inTwa vrtlyesudthefocm t of the rental provision. Less carefully worded failure, but it has a disincentive effect upon stipulations might have undermined this part the tenant. Rent regulations under a reform of the reform program. In India, for example, tend, though not always, to effect shifts from the provision that a landlord can take back land crop sharing to fixed rents, thereby providing for "personal cultivation" has proved to be a the tenant with greater incentive. The prob- serious drawback in enforcing security of lem with rent reductions of whatever type is tenure and rent provisions. that they are difficult to enforce. Japan and Taiwan have succeeded in enforcing them as they have much else, but they are very special Land Redistribution exceptions rather than the rule. This applies particularly in areas such as India and Indo- There are regulated tenancies in the United nesia where there is fierce competition for any States, England, and even in India that so 358 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 protect the tenant that he prefers to invest in (Nepal), but in most countries redistribution capital goods to improve the land rather than of land and the establishment of new owner in buying land. But this is not true in most farmers is the main objective. This aims to- parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin ward abolition of tenancy altogether. The im. America. What the farmer wants is a piece of mediate problem of reform makers then is to land of his own. To the Japanese farmer, one secure enough land to endow a given number without land is one without a soul. This mys- of tenants with land of their own. The core of tique about land ownership may not be so aptly it is the "ceiling." The landlord is permitted to expressed in other countries, but its validity retain a certain amount of land (ceiling), the is there no matter how expressed. Prevailing remainder being earmarked for redistribution tenurial conditions suffice to explain it. Where among the landless. It is the size of the ceiling tenants are plentiful and poor and land is that determines how far-reaching the program scarce, regulated tenancies are almost impos- might be, always assuming that the ceiling is sible to enforce. Japan and Taiwan have suc- enforced. ceeded, but they are very special exceptions to Since countries have varying amounts of the rule. Examples to this effect are too numer- land available and varying scales of tenancy, it ous to cite here. In one case, that of India, an is understandable that the ceiling should differ unwise attempt to regulate tenancies led to from country to country. More fundamental, still greater insecurities and the driving of ten- however, is the fact that in some countries the ants to the very bottom of the agricultural ceiling is made to serve the objective of wide- ladder to the rank of agricultural laborers. spread ownership whereas in others the ceiling The arguments are strong for the diffusion can become a device to defeat this objective. In of ownership among the tenants as the main Japan and Taiwan the ceiling was so set that purpose of agrarian reform. As we shall see it encompassed all the land of the absentee later, enforcement of a land distribution pro- owners and permitted (in Japan) the resident gram in Asian conditions is no easy task either. landowner to retain only 2.5 acres. This is an Yet one cannot but agree with a student of the instance of a ceiling cutting to the very bone problem that "administratively, there is virtu- of the landlord's holding. It cuts less deeply in ally no question but that a system of owner South Vietnam with a ceiling of 250 acres, cultivatorship in which the basic distinction apparently deeply in Iran where a landlord is between 'mine' and 'thine' can be marked out permitted to retain only one village out of on the ground is much simpler to administer many, while in India the great variety of ceil- than a system of regulated tenancies." This of ings might have served their purpose except course assumes that a government, in the first for lack of enforcement and widespread eva- place, devotes itself single-mindedly to the sion. promotion of this kind of a program. There is Clearly what matters in extending owner- another reason why agrarian reform should ship is not only at what level the ceiling is set stress ownership. Agricultural practices on but also that it not be evaded. The cases of most of the would-be new-owner farms need Japan and Taiwan on the one hand and Paki- improvement, and this means new investments. stan on the other are instructive. The low Financial institutions, even if they are public, ceiling in the first two countries made it possi- make a distinction between owned land and ble to extract a great deal of surplus land for leased land in making loans. In the first case, redistribution. Before the reforms 54 percent land is the security for obtaining investment; of Japan's land had been owner operated, and but this is not so in regulated tenancies with after the reform the figure rose to 92 percent; their continuous shifting of rights and duties the respective figures for Taiwan were 60 and between landlord and tenant. 85 percent. West Pakistan is not Japan or Tai- wan, but fixing a ceiling of 500 irrigated acres The Land Ceiling and 1,000 unirrigated acres in a country where the land of two-thirds of the farmers averaged There are reforms the sole purpose of which five acres each was not really a measure for land is security of tenure and reduction of rent redistribution. Moreover, exceptions and sub- Land Reform 359 divisions of large holdings among members of vestors in commerce or industry. The combina- a family were permitted on the eve of the re- tion of all these elements has made land values form. This, combined with the high ceiling, unrealistically high, a fact that must be faced meant that the land distribution program was by reformers in deciding what to pay for the divested of any meaning. It appears that, if a land to be purchased from the landlords for ceiling is to provide the landless with land, it distribution among tenants. must be set at a low level; the acreage retained In Japan the price of land was fixed by by the landlord must be fixed retroactively or capitalizing the annual rent in a manner to en- on a date well in advance of the reform; and, sure a fair profit for the farmer buying the finally, the ceiling must be fixed on the basis land (taking into consideration that all rice of land owned by a household rather than an save his own consumption was collected by the individual. With a low ceiling, no evasions, and government at fixed prices). In practice this effective implementation, large numbers of ten- meant 40 times the rental value of a rice field ants can become farmer proprietors. and 48 times the rental value of an upland field. These cash rents were quite low com- pared to a price level augmented by inflation. The Landlord's Holding In Taiwan the government decided that a land- lord would get 2.5 times the annual value of Unless a reform is confiscatory-and the ones all crops on a given piece of land. In Italy as- considered here are not-the question of how sessed valuations shown in the land tax records much to pay for the land earmarked for redis- served as a basis of pricing. A number of Indian tribution is of great importance. Various coun- states used annual tax revenue or net income tries approach this crucial issue in different from the land as a base. But whatever the exist- ways. Usually the value of the land for compen- ing method of pricing, with rare exceptions the sation purposes has been derived from one or price is fixed below the market price. The fact a combination of factors such as valuations is that land purchase under a reform is not an shown in land tax records, recorded land reve- ordinary real estate transaction where seller, nues, rent collected, landlord's net income, or broker, and buyer meet in a free market. If it value of produce. But one thing is common were and if tenants were able to pay the "going to most of them: Prevailing market prices are price," there would be no need for reform. It seldom accepted as the basis of valuation. If may be concluded that the price fixed by a they are considered, it is only as a yardstick for government is an arbitrary one, the degree of sharp deviation downward. Even where the in- arbitrariness depending upon how a reformer tent is clearly not to penalize expropriated answers the question already referred to: "For owners but rather to compensate them ade- whose benefit is the reform designed?" quately for their loss, they are not in the same position as a person under no legal pressure to sell, free to negotiate on the open market for Methods of Purchase and Repayment the best available price. This puts the compen- sation outside the market in the strictest sense. There is ample evidence that, in order to bring Land prices in underdeveloped and densely about a land redistribution program, a govern- populated areas are commonly very high, bear- ment must buy the land and resell it to the ing no relation to the productive value of the tenant rather than institute direct landlord- land. Low assessments of agricultural land, tenant negotiations. This procedure rests on comparatively low land taxes, and negligence in the proposition that, where land is at a pre- tax collections have frequently been the main miumn and the economic and political power of reasons for high market values, particularly in a landlord is strong, the bargaining power of areas with high population pressure on the the tenant in relation to the landlord is so land. Added to this are such factors as the weak that an agreement can be reached only social and political prestige and influence on the landlord's terms. The two decades of gained from the possession of land, and a Japanese paper reforms before World War II favored tax position compared with that of in- amply demonstrate this point. This is true in 360 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 other countries in Asia where purchase trans- perhaps the only known case of an agrarian actions are left in the hands of landlord and reform that has consciously planned and suc- tenant. In the long run this means prohibitive ceeded in transferring private capital formerly prices-and no sales-which explains why tied up in the land into the general develop- landlords are usually compelled to sell a cer- mental field. tain amount of land at officially fixed prices. The methods of repayments to the govern- How a government pays for the distributed ments by the former tenants vary from country land is of great importance to government, to country, but the underlying principle is that landlord, and tenant alike. Experience shows the payments must not constitute an excessive that a government, no matter what the price, burden on the new owner. A government's an- is not in a position to pay for the land in cash nual recovery from the new owner must be in one lump sum; Colombia and Venezuela are less than his former rent. Usually repayments perhaps the only exceptions to the rule. Pay- by tenants and payments by governments for ments to the landlord are made mostly in the acquired land are extended over a similar interest-bearing bonds spread over a period of period of years. Since all governments are years, with cash seldom exceeding 10 percent eager to recover their original outlays, they of the fixed price of the land. Madras state and aim to strike an annual balance between what the Philippines are exceptions. In the latter a they pay out and what they take in. This does maximum of 50 percent of the compensation not necessarily work in practice because of may be paid in cash and the remainder in land changes in the economic conditions of the farm certificates, except that full payment in cash community; a government's decision to charge is made in certain cases of expropriation (or not to charge) to the new owners the ad- through the courts. However, very little land ministrative costs of a reform; and, above all, has been thus acquired, especially since land the fact that some governments have realized acquisitions are based on "fair market value." that, if land redistribution is to be viable, Payment through bonds, extended over periods heavy investments are needed to improve the of twenty years or more and bearing an in- land and to create infrastructure to help the terest rate of 3.5 to 5 percent, has eased budg- new owners during the formative years of the etary difficulties and has served to avoid the reform. The recovery of these extra costs is inflationary impact of large cash disbursements. not often charged to the new owners directly. In some countries the bonds are negotiable and On the whole the record of repayments is redeemable in equal annual installments; or the good. This must be attributed to the relatively bonds can be used for the purpose of industrial easy terms set by the governments in question. and commercial investment, for the payment In Italy, for example, a new owner under the of taxes, and such. reform pays an annual sum equivalent to $19 Taiwan's case is unique. To avoid the ef- an acre, on the average, as against $40 to $50 fects of inflation, which resulted in virtual an acre on similar, nonreform land. In Vene- confiscation in Japan, Taiwan tied the price of ziela the new owners amortize in twenty to land to the prices of two principal products of thirty yearly installments a predetermined pro- the land and to shares of stock in government- portion of the cost of the land; improvements owned industrial undertakings. This meant and the first year's working capital are provided that 70 percent of the compensation was in by the government as a gift. In Egypt repay- the form of commodity bonds payable in inent is in forty annual installments; and, twenty semiannual installments over a period though the farmers are also charged 1.5 per- of ten years and 30 percent was paid outright cent interest annually and 10 percent for ad- in stocks. This method worked well for all ministrative costs, the sum total of annual parties concerned. The commodity bonds pre- recovery is considerably below the level of served the value of the sales price against pre-reform rent. It is clear that, even with good fluctuations in the value of the currency for a recovery, reform imposes budgetary strains on a ten-year period. And an estimated 40 percent government. Two facts must be kept in mind, of the total compensation found its way into however. One is that an agrarian reform is not industrial and business investments. This is an ordinary commercial enterprise but one Land Reform 361 involving social justice and political stability, said of every country where reform has failed. an investment in the future of the nation's A number of reasons explain this state of af- people. Second, if the assumption is correct, as fairs. To begin with there may be insufficient it seems to be, that agrarian reform does lead administrative and technical skill to mount a ,to an increase in agricultural productivity, then reform; but this is not a crucial issue, and it is reasonable to say that eventually the gov- failure to implement a reform cannot be at- ernment and the country as a whole will more tributed to it. More to the point are inadequate than recoup the investments called for by the measures or half-measures deliberately drafted initiation of a reform and its support during so as to retard-if not obstruct altogether- the early years. the application and implementation of a re- form; absence of leadership among the peasants Implementation and the Political Climate to propagate the reform idea and exert effec- tive pressure on legislative bodies; disinter- Effective enforcement rather than reform legis- estedness-if not overt opposition-on the lation, however well drawn, makes the differ- part of intellectuals and molders of public ence between reform in being and reform on opinion; and, most important, the built-in op- paper. There are too many of the latter kind position to reform by the landlords, whose role in the regions under consideration. The agrar- in the body politic is out of all proportion to ian reform movement in Asia anticipated most their numerical strength. This combination of of those in the Middle East and in Latin factors inhibiting reform is hard to overcome. America, but this advantage in time did not Land ownership as the main point of an bring about uniformly good results. With the agrarian reform is difficult to achieve. Examples exception of Japan and Taiwan, the picture of are legion, and the reason is not far to seek. Asia leaves much to be desired. The landlords' Land redistribution under agrarian reform is property in South Korea has found its way a compulsory measure imposed by a govern- into the hands of the tenants, but the govern- ment upon the landowners on economic and ment's failure to come to the financial assistance legal terms unpalatable to them. In effect this of the new owners has brought about indiffer- involves a drastic redistribution of property ent results. The civil war in South Vietnam and income at the expense of the landlords. It caused that reform to be short-lived. The Bur- becomes a revolutionary measure when it inese tenants are owner farmers now, but passes property, political power, and social government after government has failed to status from one group in the society to an- capitalize upon this and develop the rich land other. This is a real meaning of an agrarian re- resources of the country. The Philippines has form where land redistribution is its central four reform failures on its record and is trying objective. Considering the fact that, in the now for the fifth time with no greater pros- areas under discussion, legislative assemblies pects for success than heretofore. West Paki- are still dominated by land-propertied classes, stan and Indonesia have proclaimed reform but it is not difficult to see why both the enact- with hardly any implementation, while Nepal, ment of appropriate legislation and its enforce- after a dozen years of cogitation, is just barely ment present such formidable problems. Thus taking the first step. Finally, there is India, land reform, despite its economic implications, significant and encouraging for what it has commences as an essentially political question attained in unprecedentedly difficult and be- involving a most fundamental conflict of in- wildering conditions and just as significant and terests between the "haves" and the "have-nots." discouraging for what it has failed to attain, and for the reasons why. Who Makes Agrarian Reform? None of this has anything to do with igno- rance of the tenantry's conditions or inability No matter how ripe a country may be for to draft legislation to meet those conditions. agrarian reform, it does not follow that an Even Nepal, a closed and remote society only agrarian reform then occurs. Nor does enact- yesterday, is skilled enough to write good meas- mient of a reform always meet popular aspira- ures-if it wants to. Surely the same can be tions in terms of social justice and better dis- 362 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 tribution of rights and opportunities among the sition and administrative and technical prob- landless. The dragging of the feet on the part lems, the zamindari tenures were virtually of governments and legislative assemblies in abolished. Not all have benefited equally and enacting reforms is notorious. Technical exper- not all the 20 million cultivators affected have tise in preparing and administering the neces- received permanent, heritable, and transferable sary legislation is indispensable, but experts rights. Nevertheless the effort was a major step do not make reforms. Politicians, and only toward a reconstruction of Indian agriculture. politicians, make good or poor reforms or do The measure succeeded because it was politi- not make them at all. They control the political cally popular to abolish an agricultural system climate, which determines the will or lack of full of abuses imposed by a foreign power. will to proceed with the task; the specific meas- With the British gone, the government went ures with which the reform is or is not en- about drafting the necessary legislation; the dowed; the care or lack of care with which the zamindars were disestablished despite the op- enabling legislation is formulated; the prepa- position of the landlords, lack of financial ration or lack of preparation of the pertinent means, and insufficient administrative and and administrative services; the presence or technical staff. Not every "t" was crossed and absence of technical services with their bear- not every "i" was dotted, but the job was ing upon the success or failure of the reform; done. On the other hand, in dealing with its and, most important, the drive or lack of drive indigenous landlord system, India faltered and behind the enforcement of the provisions of very often badly, both in content of the meas- the law. The "positive" makers of reform must ures and in their implementation. The nation represent strong political leadership deeply is not without its bright spots; but security of concerned with the land and its cultivators and tenure, rent reduction, and landlord ceiling capable of translating those concerns into ac- provisions have not been successfully imple- tion. There is no substitute for this kind of inented on the greater part of India's 80 mil- leadership at the crucial stage of determining lion acres of tenanted land. In fact, perhaps a reform's main goal and initiating it. The as many tenants have lost their tenancies as financial, technical, and administrative needs have been made secure on the land through de- of a reform can prove to be formidable ob- liberate rather than accidentally faulty legisla- stacles to its initiation and enforcement. Never- tion. Such states as Bombay and Uttar Pradesh theless experience shows-and India provides have demonstrated that, given strong and will- a number of illustrations-that they are not ing leadership, many of the reform problems insurmountable difficulties if the concerted will can be dealt with successfully. But where anti- of political leadership is brought to bear. The reform sentiment prevails, as it often does in built-in landlord opposition, abetted by public Indian state legislatures, vague and compli- servants, can be dealt with successfully if the cated measures generously seeded with loop- political leadership is bent on carrying out its holes, delays in legislative enactment, failure to goals. This is especially important because the inform the peasants what the law is about, en- peasantry has not developed a popular political forcement officers who behave as if reforms movement of its own capable of effectively are not meant to be enforced, and refusal to representing and advocating its own cause. enlist the support of the farmer in helping carry out the program-all these become the of India rule rather than the exception. With variations the same is true of a great many other coun- India, which has done both much and little, tries. demonstrates how much can be accomplished when will and determination are present and 1. The zamindari system was a product of early how little can be attained if they are absent. British rule. The zarnindar was given the right to India's reform objectives were twofold: first collect land taxes and undertook to pay the British Ii t d f administration a fixed revenue. In return he was not the abolition of the zamindari system;' second, only permitted to keep a portion of the revenue but security of tenure, reduction of rent, and dis- was also recognized as the proprietor of the revenue- tribution of land to the landless. Despite oppo- bearing land. Land Reform 363 The Japanese Example vators-all elected by their respective groups. Japan and Taiwan, on the other hand, pro- The preponderance of tenants was a deliberate ceeded with their reforms with no vacillation move based on the theory that, if only one or half measures. They developed their own owner cultivator sides with them, a working techniques of initiating and enforcing reform. majority is ensured for the commission. The That the American occupation in one case and commissions were entrusted with the actual the loss of mainland China in the other were purchase and sale of land. They had broad important elements in fashioning the reforms powers that they could exercise with a mini- does not invalidate the proposition that above mnum of governmental interference. These in- all else a favorable political climate is the pre- cluded: drafting the purchase plan for each condition of a sound reform and its imple- village, determining the suitability of the land mentation. In such an atmosphere even the to be purchased, establishing the eligibility of would-be non-enforcers become enforcers, and purchasers, deciding cases requiring unusual or technical difficulties are only challenges to be special treatment, and appraising cases of ex- resolved. To be sure, reform has an element emption from the purchase provisions. The of coercion. This is so because the key to the Japanese scheme was based on the fact that no implementation of any reform that transfers staff could have been gathered to deal quickly property and privilege from one group to an- with the transfer of 30 to 40 million plots of other is the degree to which the controlling land and that only the local people knew at a political forces of a country are willing to su- glance who was who in the village, who owned politwhat lande who lese landtr and howin tuc and- port these revolutionary changes and ready to what land, who leased land and how much, and use all instruments of government to attain so forth. The work of the local commissions, their goals. Government coercion, then, whether coupled with the successful effort to bring to practiced or implied, is virtually unavoidable. the attention of the farmers the basic points But so long as this kind of a political wind is of the reform, more than justified anticipations. conspicuous by its absence, a meaningful re- It is questionable if the reform could have been form intended to meet some of the minimum carried out so speedily and in such orderly needs of tenants can be neither properly initi- fashion but for the local land commissions. The ated nor carried out. duties they performed were an important form Even well-drafted measures in a pro-reforn of adult education and served to stimulate new atmosphere cannot be easily enforced if the leadership. Tenant members who were ill at task is left solely to the bureaucracy. There are ease and insecure at the beginning of the exer- never enough bureaucrats and reform experts cise were seasoned performers a year or two to go around; the experts become experts only later. The very creation of the commissions in the process of application of the reform. If enabled all the adult farm population to vote a reform is to be carried out successfully, it on a matter of utmost concern to all groups in must win the active participation of the people the village. At the same time the composition directly affected by the reform-the farmers- of the commissions proclaimed the fact that who best know the conditions of their rural the tenants' interests were to be protected by community. With the exception of Japan and the tenants themselves rather than by someone Taiwan, this principle has not been recognized acting on their behalf within the traditional by most countries currently engaged in reform pattern of rural Japan. At the height of the activities. reform approximately 150,000 commissioners Japan is the pioneer in entrusting the vil- received this kind of special leadership train- lagers with the lion's share of the implementa- ing, and half of them were tenants. The pre- tion of the reform. A close look at the Japa- reform contention that only landlords could nese experience is very instructive, for it carries exercise leadership, make decisions, and ad- a lesson that other countries might well ponder. minister the community proved baseless. The device created by Japan for the adminis- tration of the reform at the village level is the local land commission made up of five It may be argued that what Japan could do tenants, three landlords, and two owner culti- with a literate farm population is not possible 364 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-1964 in other countries with less literate farmers. between agrarian reform and productivity does But even illiterate farmers know their own exist if agrarian reform stands for ownership condition and that of others in their commu- of the land or secure tenure and such support. nity. A judge in court may dispute a farmer's ing elements as land improvement, irrigation, occupancy right because he lacks a written credit, marketing, and so on. Without these contract; but there is hardly a village where the added inputs, agrarian reform is not necessarily tenants, like the Japanese tenants, do not know the touchstone to a new owner's increased out- the details of the existing pattern of tenure. put and higher standard of living. This knowledge, if enlisted through some sort The pervading spirit of enthusiasm that of organization (not necessarily the Japanese comes with reform and the will to make the type), could greatly aid any reform effort. So most of the awaited land of one's own are far, farmer involvement has been conspicuous important incentives to production; they play by its absence unless, as in Bolivia, farmers deal an indispensable role when the supporting with reform in their own spontaneous fashion. services are there to play their role. The ex- So long as the would-be beneficiaries are periences of Japan, Taiwan, Italy, Egypt, and treated as mere onlookers, often ignorant of India provide ample evidence that agrarian even the ABC's of the reform measure, the reform and productivity go hand in hand un- reform cannot succeed. The widespread as- der these conditions. Therefore, if the anticipa- sumption that only white-collar officials can tions of the beneficiaries of agrarian reform are administer a reform is an idea best laid to rest. not to be thwarted, a government promoting a Reform, if effective, must be carried out at the reform must be prepared at least in the initial village level; and the participation of the stages to invest in a variety of other measures farmers in an affair that affects them deeply is that promote agricultural productivity. On the one of the vital conditions for translating a other hand, efforts to promote agricultural reform from paper to reality. productivity where tenancy reforms are long overdue are likely to be adversely affected by Reform and Productivity the existing tenure system. Unless new inputs come to overburdened tenants as a gift or un- Just as insecure and difficult tenure conditions der exceptionally favorable terms, the chances make for low productivity, it is often assumed are that they cannot afford to innovate. The that agrarian reform with ownership as its reaction of the tenants to the package program objective makes for higher productivity. This in India is a case in point. It follows that agen- is in tune with Arthur Young's statement in cies concerned with ways of building a tech- the eighteenth century that "ownership is the nical and organizational base for raising pro- magic that turns sand into gold." It flows from ductivity must be equally concerned with the the idea that investments and productivity are problem of reforming existing tenures when promoted through the incentive of private, these constitute a problem. individual ownership of land. This assumption may or may not be correct, depending upon the Social Status and Political Stability circumstances surrounding the fact of owner- ship. In Latin America, for example, many a Agrarian reform in its inclusive sense stands private owner of a hacienda has not proved to for salutary changes in social status and politi- be a good producer-and many a small owner cal stability. In Western Europe the changes has done no better. in tenurial conditions from feudalism to our While it is easy to postulate that land owner- own day amply demonstrate this view. The ship stimulates productivity, it is extremely changes in Japan since the implementation of difficult to measure its actual effect. While as- the reform tell the same story. The Japanese sessment of output is comparatively simple, the case carries implications for underdeveloped contribution of a land distribution program to countries as well. A reform worthy of its name productivity cannot be separated with any de- is supposed to strengthen the principle of pri- gree of accuracy from that of other factors af- vate property where it was weakest, at the base fecting output. But a close interrelationship of the social pyramid. By multiplying the num- Land Reform 365 ber of independent landowning peasants, there So it is in Japan, but it need not be only comes into being a middle-of-the-road, stable in Japan, due allowance being made for differ- rural society with enhanced status, rights, and ent conditions from country to country. If an privileges. Government then cannot take the agrarian reform is imbued with the meaning peasantry for granted but must perforce pay ascribed to it here, then, whether it be India or close attention to the desires of the country- Egypt, Mexico or Peru, changes in social status side. This has happened in Japan to a degree and political attitudes in the countryside are unknown in Japanese history, and it reflects inevitable. And a government's response to the rise in social and political status of the these changes is likely also to be inevitable if peasantry due to agrarian reform. remaining in power requires popular support Reform can narrow the traditional differ- of the peasantry. ences in the class structure of the village. As the tenants step up, the landlords step down. As the landlord loses much of his affluence, he Prospects of Agrarian Reform loses much of his influence. This does not pre- suppose that the resident landlord is completely In the past two decades "agrarian reform" has displaced or that it is necessary to eliminate come to epitomize the problems and hopes of him altogether. What is taking place now in rural people in Asia, the Middle East, and the Japanese village is the sharing of power Latin America. In Asia the issue of reform has between the old and the new leadership. Both are meeting now on the agricultural commit- long since moved from the talking phase to tees coperaiveandschol bards an in that of action. The old order in the countryside tees, cooperative and school boards, and in is under attack-vigorously in very fewv coun- village offices. They rub elbows dealing with tries, much less so and with results to match common problems. This is a new and welcome in many more. From the record to dare, it development. Japan's agriculture after the re- might he concluded that only in critical condi- form still is a marginal enterprise with acre tions sucnasdeeat in ria odth and two-acre farmers. It needs all the available tions, such as dlefeat in war for Japan or the skand woia faes Inedstaill theavale escape of the Chinese Nationalist government skills and social peace and stability to deal with from China to Taiwan, can far-reaching agrar- the reality of 6 million farmers on 15 to 16 ian reforms be carried out. India disproves this million acres of land. This new leadership and thesis at least in part, as does Egypt in the the idea of citizenship rights were both foreign Middle East. Even in Latin America, legisla- to pre-reform Japan. The passing away of the nion has beeenacted here and there; and the old reality of second-class citizenship is a sym- subject is no longer taboo but has become a bol of the new social order and of greater burning issue. Admittedly, however, a wide gap political maturity and independence. The latter exists between the anticipations engendered by expresses itself in the attitude of the full- the agrarian reform movement and its realiza- fledged citizen toward a government or a party tions. in or out of power. Unlike pre-reform days, What of the future? The answer lies in a voters pick and choose according to their eco- combination of an act of faith and certain reali- nomic interest. The candidate's own proven ties that are likely to induce a more vigorous concern with farm conditions and the record prosecution of reform in the days ahead. While of his party's agricultural policies are decisive. village communities seem to carry on as of old, Whatever action a government in power may the winds of change blowing from all direc- choose to take with respect to the price of tions are bound to affect them and the bonds agricultural products, fertilizer prices, scope of of custom are bound to weaken. In India there land improvement work, and short- or long- are already numerous deviations from the term credit funds now affects the distribution norm, entire districts "going places," reaching of the vote. No longer is the vote delivered out for horizons that only yesterday seemed un- en bloc. Clearly, "we support those who sup- attainable. These are still only "islands within," port us" has a modern democratic ring and it but the drastic changes they presage will at can be traced to the social and political changes some point touch upon the expectations of all ushered in by the agrarian reform. groups of Indian rural society, including the 366 THE FORD FOUNDATION YEARS, 1961-19(4 large tenant class. Impatience with present Reform Is Not a Panacea conditions is very likely to come to the fore. Whether in an organized or disorganized form, We must recognize that in overpopulated whether through the due process of law or rural areas an agrarian reform, even with all revolutionary upheaval, the change will come- the supporting services, cannot solve all the and not only in India-and an all-inclusive problems standing in the way of a better liveli- agrarian reform will be part of it. This is the hood and greater production. Where the pres- faith part of the argument. sure of population on limited land resources is great, agrarian reform can do nothing to change the land-man ratio. With no alternative Pressures for Reform occupation outside of the village, the rise in the farm population is bound to reduce the Agrarian reform will continue to command at- size of holdings still further and to increase the tention and ultimately action for other reasons. number of farms as sons and grandsons take The areas we are discussing are agriculturally over. These limitations are obvious even in underdeveloped, particularly in foodstuffs. prosperous Japan. While in the United States There is growing recognition that agricultural between 1920 and 1957 the number of farm production must be increased if the standard of units was reduced by 22 percent and the work- living of the producers is to be raised and if ing farm population by nearly 40 percent, in capital is to be accumulated for overall eco- Japan (luring the same period both categories nomic development. In landlord-ridden coun- increased by 10 percent despite the country's tries there is a rising awareness that agricultural striking industrial upsurge. The current pros- progress depends upon a set of incentives that perity of Japanese agriculture cannot hide these the existing land tenure systems do not pro- harsh realities. Japan's nonagricultural economy vide. This recognition may yet prove to be the has served as a safety valve by providing the augury of the kind of action that makes the farmers with 40 to 50 percent of their income. difference between reform and "reform." Will- Clearly this is not possible in developing na- ingly or unwillingly many countries have been tions without substantial nonagricultural econo- preoccupied with agrarian reform and have mies. drafted reform legislation. Even though its con- Agrarian reform in such conditions is not a tent is faulty and incomplete and its execution final solution of the farmers' or nation's prob- poor, the mere existence of the legislation serves lems. Rather it does away with the worst fea- notice to the landlords that the issue will not just tures of a system that has outlived its usefulness go away and that better legislation and enforce- economically, socially, and politically. Reform menrt may be fashioned at a later date. Evasion provides a partial escape from the severe handi- of the ceiling, as in India, does not destroy it as caps of a resourceless small-scale agricultural a potentially serious attack on the status quo. economy pressed upon by a large farm popula- Landlords recognize this. They know that their tion. It is a means of elevating the human tug-of-war with the tenants is far from over, condition. We may arrange for all the ma- and many landlords would dispose of their land terial supplies of water, seeds, fertilizers, im- for something less than its market price. They plements, and credit. But we cannot give the recognize that the old order in the countryside peasant the psychological incentives he needs is not what it used to be and that their best pes he scho nen tis h n unless he is secuire on the land, particularly on days are over. How soon or how late all these land that belongs to him, for uncertainty in elements will be brought to bear in a more t drastic effort to redress the position of the this regard is one of the great disincentives landless still is up to the governments in power. under which a farmer labors. In any attempt If willing and wise, they can speed up the to provide a better material and organizational process; barring that, somebody else will take base for the rural sector, the solution of the over this long-overdue task, and much more land tenure issue is the clearing of the ground, will be at stake than a new rearrangement of in- the preparatory step for all else, the sum total come distribution and status in the countryside. of which raises agricultural productivity. V. THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 IN THE LATTER PART OF 1964 Ladejinsky was invited to participate in a major World Bank study of India's economic development effort. This study, a special effort of the Bank, was intended to penetrate to the very fundamentals of India's development problems and prospects and provide the basis for intensified World Bank efforts to assist India in its development efforts for years to come. Such luminaries in the agricultural field as Sir John Crawford and David Hopper, as well as Ladejinsky, were enlisted to participate in the study. The four papers on agrarian reform, community development, the cooperatives, and local administration that Ladejinsky contributed to this study-a book-length volume in themselves-comprise his greatest single piece of work on India and provided the foundation on which all his subsequent work on India rested. This was the beginning of Ladejinsky's association with the Bank, which was to last until his death. Upon the conclusion of this study, he was asked to assist in more conventional Bank missions to Mexico and Iran in 1966. Early in 1967 he was invited to become a member of the Bank's permanent resident mission in India. It wvas here that he finished out his working years. These World Bank years were productive of a large body of forty-seven pieces of written work: forty-one for India; two for Iran; one each for Mexico, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka; and one conference statement on land reform.' The India pieces include five clearly identifiable Ladejinsky contributions to the resident mission's annual reports; eight inimitable reports of field observations in Punjab, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bengal, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and refugee camps; and a number of other papers in which he addressed himself to the passing scene and noteworthy issues-special problems and programs affecting the small farmer, credit developments, institutional constraints on farm production, government procurement, renewed efforts at establishing landholding ceilings, the effects of the Green Revolution, and so on. For space considerations and because of a certain degree of overlap, only fifteen papers of this period are presented here, five of them in truncated form. In a significant sense "Agrarian Reform in India," the first of Ladejinsky's four contributions to the World Bank's 1964-65 study and the first in Part V, represents a watershed in Ladejinsky's arduous and frustrating love affair with India. This had started in 1950 (if not, indeed, with his 1939 paper on "Agricultural Problems of India") when on a 1. See the Chronological Bibliography. 367 368 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 visit he "was privileged to take part in the preparation of the agrarian reform part of the first plan . . . and closely followed its fortunes since then." It continued and developed with his three 1952 studies of land reform in in Madras, Punjab, and Kashmir; his 1954 study of the status of land reform; and his 1963 study of tenurial conditions and the "package" program. Ladejinsky therefore came to the 1964-65 study with an acute sense of the unfinished business of agrarian reform in India-its early postindependence promise, its good intentions, its partial and muffled successes, and its misdirections and frustrations. This major effort of the World Bank, he thought, provided unusual occasion and opportunity to influence the government to make a mighty effort to set things right-hence his lengthy closing remarks under the headings "Suggestions for Action," "Administrative Reform," the "Congress Party and the Peasant," and the paragraphs following. Although the language is measured and objective, one cannot help but recognize that Ladejinsky is making here a supreme and even passionate effort to achieve a breakthrough. This was not to be. The early successes of the Green Revolution led to a kind of euphoria in the minds of the policymakers and to a period of preoccupation with production goals and efforts; consequently reform objectives receded into the background. Vagaries of the monsoon and production losses brought other periods of preoccupation with import programs, centralized procurement, and price and distribution controls. When interest in reforms wvas renewed, it took the impracticable form of what Ladejinsky called "The Land Ceiling Flap," rather than concentrating on the security of tenure and rent reforms which in his view were much more practicable roads to reform. Ladejinsky consequently became increasingly stoic over these last years. Convinced that no outside agency or institution could influence significantly the outcome of so fundamentally political an issue in India, he sought publication for his frequent articles in the highly respected and widely read Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), rather than in Western journals, in the hope of influencing the all-important political climate for change within India. But while he never ceased to strive, it can scarcely be said that his hopes remained high or that his satisfactions were many. "The very best thing that happened to me this year or in the past seven years . . .," he wrote in a private letter at the end of 1974, "was two weeks I spent in the Philippines upon Bill Sullivan's [the U.S. ambassador] invitation to tell him if Marcos's agrarian reform is a paper proposition or not. Well, I told him as per the enclosed and minced no words with Marcos in a long session. He seemingly bought what I was selling and I am suddenly something of a 'doer' once again and a 'white-haired boy' all around. . . . For once in many years I have the feeling that a piece of paper can relate to action. A novel experience after seven years of writing papers which have not influenced any policy decisions." The statement was perhaps exaggerated by the euphoria of the moment. By contrast, he clearly denigrated his India contribution. But the statement also conveys a truth. Ladejinsky lived and worked to influence policy decisions and to achieve results, not to produce papers, however elegant and admired. Neither, at his age, was he inclined to take the long view of what effect his work might have in the long run. This only his readers can do. Agrarian Reform in India 369 48. Agrarian Reform in India The introductory notes to Part V have already commented on some aspects of this paper. Further to those remarks, I shall say here only that in my opinion this must rank among the very best of Ladejinsky's written works. It is a great paper. It was originally part of the World Bank's monumental study, "India's Economic Development Effort," dated October 1, 1965 (volume IV, appendix IX). Introduction Agrarian reform defined R The term "agrarian reform" is a loose one. AGRARIAN REFORM IN INDIA is more than. old. Its history is replete with t Broadly viewed, it is made up of a good many and ctury, relements. It stands, to begin with, for redistri- and turns, ranging from the early attempts to bution of land among the landless, the creation protect the cultivator's rights in the land to of individual proprietorships, security of ten- "the land to the tiller" idea to "cooperativiza- ure, and controlled rents. But no single panacea tion" of agriculture and back to such funda- meets the issue. For even redistribution of the mentals as security of tenure and controlled land could not answer all the basic needs of rents. The early history can be left to the his- the new owners unless it were accompanied by torians. The stress here is on a few underlying the necessary means to work and improve the principles of agrarian reform: the conditions land. With any new economic opportunities which give rise to reform; India's attempts to and psychological incentives which come with deal with the problem since independence; the the possession of the land or security of tenure, success, failure, and the consequences of these there must go, hand in hand, a host of other attempts; and the measures that would be re- developmental measures. This is illustrated by quired to ensure the implementation of the the underdevelopment of the land of those who reforms in the years immediately ahead. Above have small holdings of their own. Any psycho- all, the emphasis is on the fact that the Indian logical incentives created by land reform must tenurial system is one of the elements that in- be put to use for productive purposes by aug- hibit agricultural productivity. Any considera- meenting the resources of the new owners. For questions as this reason agrarian reforms in the sense con- non f ths prbleminvoves uchsidered here include also the following ele- who owns or doesn't own what land, the con- ments: favorable financial arrangements for ditions under which land is held by those who land purchases; better methods of cultivation do not own any, how the product is shared, and through technical assistance; land consolidation the effect on investments in agriculture and of fragmented holdings; adequate credit; co- productivity. Additionally and related to all of operative marketing facilities; farm price this are the important questions of social status schemes to stimulate agricultural production, and political power in the countryside. For all and so forth. these reasons, in India where land is a scarce Though agrarian reform is a combination prime resource and pressure on the land con- of a great many things, not all of them are of tinues to mount, the farmers' rights in land equal importance. Important though the other are an issue of transcendent importance. ingredients are, unless those who work the land 370 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 own it or hold it securely, it could be asserted owner and tenant is therefore thought to be a that all the rest will not have the anticipated vital part of a sound tenancy agreement. (The results. Hence proprietorship and security of practice of this kind of mutual investment is tenure are at the top of the list. It is because not, however, prevalent in India.) The re- not all tenants in India (or elsewhere) are sources of the tenant are minute at best, and it likely to become owners that "security of ten- would be idle to expect of him to use a volume ire" becomes a paramount issue. In the sense and quality of inputs commensurate with good interpreted here, security of tenure is seen as farm practices-unless the landlord contributes calling for a set of conditions which tend to no less than his share of all the input requisites. stimulate agricultural production, improve the It is thought desirable, therefore, to stipulate in economic conditions of the tenants, and pre- the contract that the variable costs of inputs clude social unrest. The following, then, be- will be shared in proportion to the share of come the principal elements of "security of crops received. Therein lie two advantages: an tenure": fixity of tenure, fair rentals, and com- incentive to the tenant to invest and an in- pensation for improvements made by the centive to the owner to extend his interest in tenant. the land beyond mere rent collecting. The relationship between the two parties Perhaps the most important element in a must be in the form of a written agreement, tenurial arrangement is the amount of rental spelling out all the pertinent rights and ob- and how it is paid. It needs no arguing that ligations of the two parties. (This is an impor- the level of rents can make the difference be- tant point, for it is probably correct to say that tween a tenant's incentive to invest or not in- even now the majority of the Indian tenants vest in agricultural production, just as it can have no written contracts, carrying on at the in the final analysis determine his standard of whim of the landowners. There is no security living and his ability to climb or not to climb of tenure under such an arrangement.) Crucial the "agricultural ladder." (With respect to to the concept of security of tenure is that the India, rentals before and since the reforms were period of tenure must be long enough for the and are admittedly unduly high, above the level tenant to realize the opportunities provided justified by the other factors mentioned in this by the leased land, added resources, and rea- and the preceding paragraphs. The Indian re- sonable management. The obverse is true of a formers have recognized this and it explains tenant with a short-term contract, which by why the prescribed rents, as distinguished itself spells uncertainty and insecurity. A con- from those actually paid, range in most cases tract can be as long as a lifetime (United from a high of one-third of the crop to a low Kingdom) or as short as one crop season of one-sixth.) How the rent is paid is also a (India); a five- to six-year period is con- matter of considerable importance to the ten- sidered a minimum. The right of renewal is ant. Crop sharing is seen as making economic considered to be a necessary part of the con- sense only where there is a danger of recurring tract unless the tenant "abuses" the land and / crop failures. Barring such exceptions, it may or unless the owner takes back the land for be said that part of security of tenure should legitimate self-cultivation. (In India, as we be a fixed, monetary rent. In the long run this shall point out elsewhere, "self-cultivation" is would be an incentive to produce more, re- often a misnomer.) Part of the arrangement of taining the increment of additional input in a fairly long lease is that the tenant is entitled whatever form. Finally, secure tenure is en- to ample notice in advance of the expiration visaged as providing a system of arbitration to of the contract. adjust the differences arising in landlord-tenant We indicated above that the tenant must relationship. Such differences, whether relating be compensated for improvements made with to rents, sharing of inputs, crop failures, and so his own resources. Failing that, the tenant will forth, are inevitable; and proper arbitration have no incentive to improve the land if the procedures are required as a basic part of any ultimate beneficiary of the unexhausted value tenancy improvement program. Taken all to- of the improvement is the owner or the new gether, these are the main elements which tenant. The sharing of the cost of inputs by serve to create "security of tenure." Agrarian Reform in India 371 Obstacles rangements have created conditions mutually reforms are difficult to attain, In most satisfactory to the tenant and owner. Before Agrarian rersrificl o ttin In st the reforms this was not true of India where cases land redistribution or putting land se- the bargaining power between landlord and Cutely under the control of a nonowner are tebagingpwr ewenldodad acts by a government imposing upon the land- tenant was altogether on the side of the former. That tenancy conditions in India were not owners economic and legal terms unpalatable mutually satisfactory was alluded to in the to them. In effect, such policies if carried out preceding paragraph, but more specifically the are revolutionary acts which pass property and following may be added. Whether rents were redistribute income, political power, and so- paid in cash or in kind, they exceeded more cial status from one group of society to an- than 50 percent of the crop; and rents as high other. To the extent that legislative assemblies t 50 percent of the crop re n ai . . as 60 to 70 percent of the crop were no ran- are still dominated by land-propertied classes, ties.' In most cases the landlord paid only the it is not difficult to see why both the enactment of appropriate legislation and its enforcement lad orenute Te eri a llethe . costs of production. There were also illegal present formidable problems. It may be con- contributions, too many to list, sanctioned by cluded that land reform has not only powerful economic implications but commences essen- ctom so a terei ins the racesa tially as a political question, running head-on othe la r and therebyinsre te r al into a fundamental conflict of interests be- of th e la te sainfdaio e ( ut "have-nots." which more later), sub-infeudation or suc- tween the "haves" and the cessive grades of intermediaries or tenure holders between the landlord and the actual The Indian setting cultivator also tended to separate the latter The conflict of interest takes place in a setting from a considerable share of his meager share of which India is a classic example. It may be of the crop.2 The landlord's participation in summed up as follows: many people on too the agricultural process was more often than little land; scarce land, yet concentrated in rela- not merely that of a collector of rents and tively few hands; negligible capital invested in whatever else he chose to impose upon the ten- each unit of land and generally underemployed ant. Leases were mostly short-time affairs, oral; land; inadequate irrigation facilities and de- but, even if written, they did not provide the pendence upon mercy of nature; low yields but peasant with security of tenure. Indebtedness high rents; poor farmers but expensive farms; on usurious terms was the rule, and neither small holdings getting smaller inder the rising the cultivator nor the land could prosper. In pressure of population with no alternative oc- such a scheme of things, there was no place cupations; inadequate tools, indebtedness and either for peasant initiative or savings to inno- usury, malnutrition and illiteracy; and absence vate and improve the land. of the agricultural ladder. Probably three-fifths The "have-nots" in India are made up of of the cultivating families have little or no "pure" tenants, tenants with some land of their margin for innovation and risk taking, and it own, and a vast army of landless agricultural explains the prevalence of subsistence farming laborers. Just how many there are of each will with its lack of dynamics or regenerative ca- pacity. This setting has undergone some changes since independence, but it still holds 1. To cite a few examples: In the Punjab before true to a large degree even after the reforms independence in the prevailing share-cropping areas, the landlord's share could go as high as 80 per- came into being. cent of the crop (H. D. Malaviya, Land Reforms in Tenancy as an institution has had a bad India, p. 164). The Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyals name in underdeveloped countries, but it can (agricultural laborer) Ordinance of August 23, 1952, be and is a sound economic system. Numerous provided for a reduction of rentals by lowering the e clandlord's share to 60 percent of the crop; prior to examples can be cited where a cultivator pre- that the tenants' share ranged from 15 to 33 per- fers the tenant status, investing his capital in cent of the crop; in Hyderabad it was two-thirds to basic inputs of productivity rather than in the the landlord and one-third to the tenant. purchase of land. In such cases tenancy at- 2. Malaviya, Land Reforms in India, pp. 103-05. 372 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-19/5 be discussed in the next paragraph. What census figures are accepted at their face value, should be noted here is the unequal distribu- in about half of the states of India the land tion of land ownership, area cultivated, and cultivated under pure and mixed tenancy 5 size of holdings. Thus, 53 percent of the rural ranges from 31 percent in Bihar to 67 percent households of India own 16 percent of the in Kerala. According to the Planning Commis- land, and at the other end of the scale 7 per- sion, in the late 1950s about 20 percent of the cent of the households own 52 percent of the cultivated land was under various forms of land. Twenty-two percent of the households tenancy and sharecropping arrangements. own no land at all. The data on area operated A writer on the subject interpreting data indicate the same disparity: 70 percent of the of the National Sample Survey of 1954-55 households operate 16 percent of the land and, concluded that "it is clear that the actual pro- at the other extreme, 9 percent operate 51 per- portion of tenant-cultivated area is much cent of the area. The third criterion also re- larger than any available statistics indicate. If veals great disparities. Seventy-eight percent of only all kinds of tenants were given the owner- the holdings are up to ten acres, but they cover ship of the land cultivated by them with their only 33 percent of the cultivated acreage; at the own hand . . . perhaps half or more of the other extreme, 6 percent of the holdings ac- cultivated land of India could be affected by count for 35 percent of the area. Since most this process alone."i In view of the develop- of the big owners find it more profitable to ments in this field under the reforms, this esti- lease out a great deal of their land rather than mate is undoubtedly on the high side. While to cultivate it personally, the institution of nobody seems to be certain about the extent tenancy is inevitable. of tenancy in India at the present time, we are Accurate data on the number of tenants and inclined to the view expressed by A. M. Khusro. the tenancy acreage are difficult to find, and He wrote that "recent researches permit the data in general vary from source to source. Ac- statement that while the total acreage under cording to the census of 1961;4 in the country open tenancy in India might be about 12 per- as a whole the percentage of pure tenants in cent of all acreage, the acreage under camou- terms of households and acreage held was 8 flaged sharecropping tenures of an exploitative and 4 percent, respectively; the respective fig- type is likely to be at least as much as that ures for mixed tenancy were 15 and 18. There under open tenancy."7 On this basis, about 85 is reason to believe that bcth categories are million acres of the total cultivated land of greatly underestimated. The estimates may not India is tenant cultivated. But whatever the always take into account the common practice figure, there has been a decline of tenancy in of oral agreements; thus tenanted land appears India since the reforms. How much of it (in as owner cultivated; the definitions of "ten- peasant proprietorship areas) can be traced ancy," "ownership," and "cultivation" are not directly to the positive and negative effects of always accurate; some land actually held by the reforms no one can say. But as will be tenants is probably included by the respondents pointed out elsewhere, the reduction in tenancy as area under "personal cultivation"; there is a was only partly a result of the shift of tenants rise in unrecorded sharecropping type of ten- to an ownership base. The evidence points to ancy; important, too, is that since the onset of the fact that only a small if undetermined num- the reforms both landlord and tenant have been ber made the grade and acquired some of the reluctant to speak frankly to casual inquirers- "de-tenanted" land; the majority remained on such as census takers, among others-about their tenurial arrangements. But even if the 5. Mixed tenancy includes in part land also owned. 3. Planning Commission, "Reports of the Com- 6. Raj Krishna, Some Aspects of Land Reform mittees of the Panel on Land Reforms" (1959), p. 3, and Economic Development in Land Tenure, Indus- table 4. trialization and Social Stability (The Marquette Uni.. 4. P. Sharma, A Study of the Structural and versity Press, 1961), p. 228. Tenurial Aspects of Rural Economy in the Light of 7. A. M. Khusro, "Rural Development," (mimeo- 1961 Census, table 7. graphed) p. 12. Agrarian Reform in India the land as tenants or lost what little hold they coming a full participant of the program. We had on the land. should note that the study assumes that the India is a big country with a great variety tenants pay the prescribed rent of 40 percent of rental conditions; but, as we shall see, they of the crop. In practice, the rent is closer to 60 have not responded to the provisions of the re- than to 40 percent. form laws. One can argue that, though fixed rents (so much produce or so many rupees per Fragmentation and consolidation " acre) remained unchanged, increased yields and higher prices have succeeded where the At first glance, fragmentation and land consoli- laws have failed.8 As against this, there is share- dation lie outside immediate land reform con- cropping with its annual and mostly upward siderations. Yet, where fragmentation affects changes and what might be called the fixed so adversely all the cultivators of India, includ- "moving" rent: As yields increase, the land- ing tenants, it becomes a "legitimate" subject lord raises the rent accordingly. When these of agrarian reform in its broad sense. Most are juxtaposed against Dr. Khusro's argument, operating holdings in India are small,"' but one sees no significant change in the rent the difficulty of working them is greatly ac- burden, exceptions notwithstanding. Overall, as centuated by their fragmentation to a point a producer of the crop the cultivator continues that, in the expression of a farmer, "the earth to share the output in a manner that adds only is crumbling under our feet." Fragmentation little to his income, his standard of living, or refers to land scattered throughout the village investment capacity. His rentals are still nearer area in plots separated by land in the possession to 50 percent of the crop, and whatever pro- of others, and it must not be confused with ex- duction inputs he applies are often-though cessive subdivision. The former connotes hold- not always-at his expense. The problem is ings which, irrespective of their size, are broken made worse since the majority of tenants culti- up into scattered fragments; the latter, holdings vate only an acre or two. that repeated partition has made dangerously The consequences in relation to agricultural small. It is not often that one finds a holding production have been described on numerous that is not split up into at least three or four occasions, all adding up to the tenants' limited plots On an all-national basis, the average capacity to innovate and improve the land. holding has approximately six plots of 1.1 acres Perhaps the most recent study on the subject each. In individual cases fragmentation can as- deals with one of the most tenant-ridden dis- sume a grotesque form; this was underscored tricts of Madras. We have reference to Effects by that mine of information, the Report of the of Tenure on Use of Improved Production Royal Commission on Agriculture in India. Practices on Paddy in Thanjavur (Tanjore) The commission noted that: District (February 1964), prepared by the In extreme cases the result is ludicrous: in Ford Foundation's Intensive Agricultural Dis- Ratnagiri, for instance, the size of individual trict Program (IADP). The burden of the plots is sometimes as small as 1/160th of an findings is that, while the improved pack- acre . . . In the Punjab, fields have been ages of practices could indeed raise the tenant's found over a mile long and but a few yards 'productivity, his obligations to the landlord wide, while areas have been brought to no- are such that it neither pays him nor has he tice where fragmentation has been carried the means to apply the full package of prac- so far as effectively to prevent all attempts tices. Since he must, perforce, use only a limited at cultivation.' part of the available inputs, his increase in yields is correspondingly lower and so is his 9. The information contained in this section is net gain. Under the circumstances, his burden derived mainly from Sundar Singh, "Consolidation of risk taking as a function of innovation be- of Holdings," (Planning Commission, 1957). comes heavy enough to preclude him from be- 10. About 63 percent of the holdings are less than 5 acres each, and about 40 percent of these are less than 2.5 acres each. 11. Report of the Royal Commission on Agri- 8. Ibid., p. 11. culture in India (London, 1928), p. 134. 374 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 The origin of fragmentation cannot be at- midable problems. The so-called "preliminary tributed directly to India's inheritance laws. steps" are indeed difficult to take, since they According to the latter, the land is equally involve securing an agreement among the vil- divided among the heirs, usually the sons. In lagers to undertake consolidation. Voluntary theory, then, if the inherited land consists of agreements are not easy to secure; what is in- three fields to be divided among three heirs, volved is the conviction on the part of the each receives one field. The practice is quite farmer that in the process of consolidation different, each getting one-third of each field. (correction of records, land measurements, land This is done to insure to each one a share in classification, land valuation, and reassignment each kind of land, since very often the quality of the consolidated land) his interest will be of the land is not uniform. The result is that protected. The touchiest of questions is land successive generations descending from a com- valuation. While it is a truism to say that plots mon ancestor inherit not only smaller shares of land vary greatly in the quality of soil, fa- of his land but inherit that land broken up cilities for irrigation, productivity, and dis- into smaller and smaller scattered plots. Frag- tance from the village, it is a Herculean task mentation, therefore, is not a result of the to evolve methods of valuation by which dif- inheritance laws as such but of the method by ferent classes of land can be reduced to a com- which the property is divided among the heirs. parable basis. Unless valuation of land satisfies For the country's agricultural economy, the community, consolidation cannot succeed. whether owner- or tenant-operated, fragmenta- On the other hand, if correctly valued, the tion is an unmitigated evil for which no ad- possibilities of disputes and discontent are vantages can be claimed. Time is wasted and reduced to a minimum. extra expense involved in moving workers, ani- Consolidation in India, begun in the middle mals, seeds, and fertilizer implements to and of the nineteenth century, was very slowly pro- from farmstead or from one field to another. ceeding on a voluntary basis and all villagers Supervision is made more difficult, depredation had to agree to the scheme. Compulsion was of animals and birds is harder to control; ex- gradually introduced so that consolidation be- penses on water supply, buildings, threshing came obligatory for a village if a certain per- floors, and so forth, are often much greater; centage of landowners holding a certain per- comprehensive irrigation and drainage facili- centage of area had agreed to consolidate. More ties or other measures of improvement become recently, virtually every state, through legisla- extremely difficult. The sum total of these dis- tive enactments, has the authority to undertake advantages seriously impede agricultural prog- consolidation where it deems necessary. This ress and act as a deterrent to full utilization of factor and the keen interest displayed by the the land. Planning Commission have brought about con- India's answer to fragmentation is consoli- siderable progress. Detailed and exact data on dation. The term stands for amalgamation and consolidation are not readily available, but redistribution of the fragmented land so as to whatever is available seems to justify the reduce the number of plots in the holdings, above claim. By the end of the second plan, thus making them more compact. Consolida- about 30 million acres had been consolidated. tion aims, therefore, at giving every right- The target for the third plan was 31 million; holder a compact area equivalent in value to of this, 15 million acres had been consolidated what he held before in scattered plots. It during the first two years, and 8 million acres neither aims at nor results in creating economic were to have been consolidated in 1962-63.12 holdings where they did not exist before. Con- We do not know how much of India's 320 mil- solidation is a difficult process, particularly lion acres of cultivated land is in need of con- when the stress is not merely on regrouping solidation; but, whatever it is, considering the of scattered plots into compact ones but also extremely difficult technical, economic, and hu- as a means to better land use through more efficient water use, better cropping patterns, and so on. Consolidation is made up of a num- 12. Planning Commission, "The Third Plan Mid- ber of phases, most of them presenting for- Term Appraisal," (November 1963), P. 101. Agrarian Reform in India 375 man problems which accompany consolidation, boundaries, right of passage for men and beasts, the figures cited represent a very considerable and water courses. Through consolidation much achievement. Punjab is the star performer, ac- of this has been greatly reduced, counting for almost half of the total, with Considering that the average holding in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh following India is still made up of six scattered plots, in order of importance. Our impression is that much remains to be done. Much, too, needs to the cost of consolidation is not excessive and be done to preclude further fragmentation so has never been a serious problem. Neither in as to avoid wherever possible the very compli- talks with the farmers nor in the literature on cated consolidation task. What is called for, the subject has this subject been raised as a therefore, is preventive action. States have limiting factor. Moreover, though in theory the recognized this by attempting to regulate parti- cultivator is responsible for the cost, a portion tions, transfers, and leases of land fragmented of it is actually met by the state governments. or in danger of being fragmented. In Bombay, And it is interesting to note that the land for example, the principal legislative measure revenue is not raised following consolidation, is the "standard area," or a plot of a size the theory being-and this is only a theory- below which profitable cultivation is not pos- that the value of the consolidated land has not sible. For dry crops, the standard area, de- undergone any significant change. pending upon the region, runs from 1 to 4 What happens to a village after consolida- acres; rice, from 0.7 to 1 acre, and grass- tion can be seen at a glance from two maps lands, from 2 to 6 acres. A plot smaller than (not included here] which show the layout of the standard area is declared a "fragment" and the same average village of 974 acres before can be transferred only to a landholder of a and after consolidation. In the words of the contiguous piece of land. It cannot be parti- commentator: tioned. A number of other provisions define Even the first look at these maps will show the eligibility priorities of persons who are to use the fragments. One might note that the priority is given to the tenant of the holding brought about as a result of consolidation. . The revius ield, sme mnut, oters or his heirs. The state of Bihar seeks to prevent e pthe transfer of a fragment to persons other large, and all of irregular and haphazard than a co-sharer or one with contiguous land. shapes, have been completely replaced by . shcaes,uhav bens ompletelyoreplae. Sd Yet, this measure is of dubious validity be- rectangular fields of a uniform size. Simi-... larly, roads have been straightened and cause partition of a fragment is allowed. The laid our wherever needed and one useful provision is that a consolidated proprly ego- holding cannot be transferred in a way that Jar paths have been provided to the holdings mig cat fragmens i aa most of .niida . wnes. might create fragments. With variations, most other states have enacted somewhat similar Not in all instances was it possible to con- legislation of a preventive kind. vert the scattered plots into single blocks, but Enforcement, as usual, varies from state to the total number of plots in the village has state. The measures can be enforced and they been reduced from 1,398 to 426, or an average are in some states, particularly Bombay. Natu- of more than 2 acres per plot as against 0.7 of rally, there are many evasions caused by ad- an acre per plot before consolidation. The ad- ministrative, economic, and social problems. vantages of consolidation along such lines as When carefully explained, the farmer can operational and administrative efficiency, exten- readily see the advantages of consolidation or sion of cultivation, increased productivity, and those of preventive action but it may not suffice social gains do not call for much comment. One under certain circumstances. Despite the regu- socioeconomic gain, however, should be noted. lations, an owner of a compact field may have Indian villages abound with costly--often a compelling need to sell off a piece of land bloody-and long drawn-out disputes about informally. There is always a buyer for it be- cause, with holdings small and alternative occu- pations at a premium, a fragment of land as- 13. Ibid. sumes great importance. Consolidated land 376 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 can be and is occasionally held by co-shares. vating tenants, there were four groups of inter- This in turn may lead to informal partition of mediaries, each with its own distinctive nomen- the land, which is administratively difficult to clature. The principal zamindar received 8.3 enforce. Thus, even wisely designed measures percent of the total rent paid by the tenant. to create compact holdings may run into purely The four individuals of the group directly un- individual problems of the character just men- der the zamindar received a total of 12.5 per- tioned. It is obvious that both consolidation cent; the 20, 80, and 160 individuals of the and preventive action is essentially a never- three subsequent groups received 20.9, 25.0, ending process of careful adjustment and and 33.3 percent, respectively. In rupee terms, change in tune with conditions peculiar to the this meant that, though for revenue purposes, land arrangement, extent of the acreage, and the estate was assessed at 200 rupees, the prin- customs prevailing in a village community. cipal zamindar and the 264 other intermedi- But in the main it may be said that the village aries extracted from the tenants 4,800 rupees." has come to recognize the beneficence of these To this should be added a long list of illegal schemes. dues imposed by the higher groups, everybody protecting his position in relation to the group above him. These tiers of interest were often Indian Reforms since Independence many times four, but whether four or eighteen as the author cites, they all formed a Jacob's ladder of which each rung is occupied not by Zamindari abolition an angel but by a tenure-holder, and the top. Agrarian reform in India falls into two broad most by the proprietor."" They were all mid.- e . dlemen, rent collectors, in no way interested in caeges:i(a)he amidria aboit.n and (b) agricultural progress, draining the land of its chne iwnher rorenursiars iThe rayrwnari resources. On the other hand, so little was left or wne popretoshp aea. Th.aidr for the actual cultivators and so insecure wxas system was a by-product of the British rule and ter position .tat ad nere ins covered about 40 percent of India. Under it, a cenive nor th a to improeither ln aid zamindar, or an intermediary between the Brit- . . t m ish administration and the actual cultivator, raise agricultural productivity. . . 'The British did not plan it that way, and was given the right to collect a fixed revenue . on behalf of the administration. In return, he between 1859 and 1935 they introduced more was nor only permitted to keep one-tenth''i of than a dozen tenancy acts to rid the system of the revenue but he was also recognized as the its grosser abuses and absurdities by giving the proprietor of the revenue-bearing land. At tenants a measure of protection. They suc- independence this system covered about half ceeded in some states (Bengal) and failed in of the cultivated land in former British India many more, always working within the zamin- and princely states. In time as the population da . system, trying to preserve rather than abolish it. It remained for the Indian govern- pressure on the land kept rising, the system. created some of the worst abuses that can be rent after independence to do away with the p isystem altogether as the first order of agrar- perpetrated upon a peasantry, mecluding a long ian reform. Within six years (1951-56) and chain of noncultivating sublessees, all getting a share of an inflated rent from the same piece of dptem the opoitnd nd adirtraiv lan ad te am cliao,problems, the zamnindari tenures were virtually Tandanthe ol cuasetshowsrthe abolished. The abolition of the system is im- . Th folowig cse sowsthe ystm's is- portant for what it has achieved and also in incentive character and how badly it affected pranto ha it a s cieesand alogi agicltra podcto. Bewe.h zaidr relation to the slower and less successful prog- agricultural production. Between the zamindar .esi eln ihtnnypolm nnn of cetai etat of2,00 cre ad 30 cI. ress in dealing with tenancy problems in non- of a certain estate of 2,000 acres and 360 culti- zanndr aras .h annaisse ah zamindari areas. The zamindari system was the 14. In the temporary settled areas (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), the zamindars retained a 15. R. Mukerjee, Land Problems in India, p. 111. much larger proportion. 16. Ibid., p. 98. Agrarian Reform in India 377 weakest enemy to attack because it was im- chase price. To be sure, considering the differ- posed by a foreign power which handed out ence in conditions between states and within property rights to which neither the British states, not all have benefited equally; and not nor the recipients had any claim. Thus, aboli- all of the estimated 20 million cultivators af- tion of the system became one of the symbols fected have received permanent, heritable, and of freedom from the British rule; and it is not transferable rights without strings attached. But surprising that, as that rule went, the zamin- overall the effort was undeniably the first and dari went along with it. major step-the clearing of the ground toward What of the consequences of the abolition? a reconstruction of Indian agriculture. The Some students of the reform minimize or deny abolition provided many of the cultivators altogether its economic benefits while crediting with incentive, freedom from fear, freedom it with social significance. This much can be from being ordered around, and an enhanced said. Tenures have been simplified; in the Uttar political and social standing which they did not Pradesh, for instance, out of the chaos of forty enjoy before. At the same time, recalling our types of tenures only three types have emerged. experience in the typical ex-zamindar Aligarh The tenants pay land revenue directly to the district, one need not tire repeating that small government. But since the revenue is equiva- owners or tenants with occupancy rights paying lent to the rent they used to pay the zamindars, low rentals (land revenue in this case) still the reform is much criticized.17 The tenants, meet with difficulties searching for the means the arguments run, have exchanged one land- to invest and produce more and better crops. lord for another, the state; and the state bene- fits financially from the arrangement. The latter is true; in the typical case of Uttar Tenancy reforms Pradesh, the annual land revenue of 20 crores Getting rid of the zamindari system did not is considerably above what the state used to put an end to tenancy in India. Even in the collect from the principal intermediaries. The ex-zamindari areas, the "home farms" retained rationale behind this is twofold: (a) Land by the former middlemen continued to be revenue had not changed in years and is, in operated by tenants. Above all, there were mil- fact, low when compared to the rise in prices lions of tenants in the "rayotwari" areas where during the same period; and (b) the govern- owner proprietorship had long predominated. ment uses part of the revenue as compensation Prior to independence numerous attempts had for the intermediaries"-a basic provision of been made to relieve the conditions of the ten- the reform-and for developmental purposes. ants in the rayotwari areas through some form The critics do not give sufficient weight to of land occupancy rights. In the main, however, these facts: Many of the tenants are securely on the practical effects of the measures were to the land; they are no longer burdened by a host safeguard the rights of the owners while deny- of illegal exactions, and some have acquired ing occupancy rights to many cultivators. There ownership from the state for a moderate put- were numerous exceptions to this, but on the eve of the first five-year plan the great majority 17. Daniel Thorner, The Agrarian Prospect in of the tenants did not enjoy security of tenure. India; and Walter C. Neale, Economic Change in In its first five-year plan, begun in 1951, the Rural India. Land Tenure and Reform in Uttar Planning Commission laid down the general Pradesh 1800-1955. policy for new legislative enactments on ten- 18. Compensation is based on the net income of ancy. The goals of that policy centered on the an intermediary at the time of the acquisition of rights by the state. The multiple is higher in cases following: (a) security of tenure subject to of lower income groups. In the Uttar Pradesh, com- the right of an owner to resume a limited acre- pensation varies from 8 to 20 times the net income age for self-cultivation, (b) reduction of rents, and in Bihar from 3 to 20 times. In some states (c) conversion of nonresumable land under compensation is paid in cash, in others in bonds tenancies into ownership, and (d) ceiling on The total compensation to all the intermediaries is estimated at Rs641 crores, of which Rs225 crores has land ownership so that the excess above the been paid off. Planning Commission, "Progress of ceiling might form a pool of land for redistri- Land Reform" (1963), p. 4, table I. bution among tenants and farmhands. In addi- 378 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 tion, there were a number of more specific The eviction movement has been wide- guidelines: The resumed acreage had to be spread, but data on how many tenants have limited only to bona fide cultivators; eviction been affected are not available; what is avail- of tenants had to be avoided wherever possible; able relates to the early 1950s and to a few rents were not to exceed one-fifth or one-fourth states only. Nevertheless, the practices de- of the crop; and land purchase prices had to be scribed below are not only typical of the states so fixed as not to exceed a new owner's ca- mentioned; they illuminate the eviction prob- pacity to meet them. lem in the countryside as a whole. For the Agrarian reform, like agricultural policy in former states of Bombay and Hyderabad, the general, is constitutionally a function of the Planning Commission's Panel on Land Re- states; and the Planning Commission's reform form" gives the following information: in policies or guidance are not binding upon the Bombay, between 1948 and 1951, the number states. However, under the continuous prodding of "protected" tenants2" declined from 1.7 mil- of the Planning Commission, the states have lion to 1.3 million, or by 20 percent; in Hy- enacted a voluminous body of legislation, each derabad, between 1951 and 1955, the number state acting in its own way. Hence there is a declined by 57 percent and the area held by great variety in the content of the reforms and them by 59 percent. In a study of the reform manner of enforcement, although the stated movement at Hyderabad, the best of its kind in principal goals are seemingly the same. The India to date, we find that of every 100 pro- question is: How successful or unsuccessful tected tenants in 1951, by 1954 only 45 percent have these enactments been after nearly fifteen still held the same status; 12 percent purchased years of effort? their land, and 2.4 percent had been legally The answer is that, in the main, the reforms evicted; 22 percent had been illegally evicted, have been in serious trouble. This is not to say and 17 percent had "voluntarily surrendered" that significantly useful changes have not taken their claims to the land. The author states: place. Along with the zamindars, the jagirdars "The so-called voluntary surrenders are very (counterparts of the former in Rajasthan, often a subtle form of illegal evictions and only Hyderabad, and so forth) have gone; and even a proportion of these surrenders are genuine," some of the big landlords of the south are no and "The implementation of tenancy legisla- longer what they used to be. Many tenants tion is a function of the degree of conscious- acquired lands following the zamindari aboli- ness among the tenantry." The author concludes tion, and some have acquired some land and his findings in these words: some security of tenure under the tenancy re- Surrenders sometimes are genuinely and forms we are about to discuss. But as against purely voluntary because many a tenant is all of this there are the delays in enacting re- completely reconciled to the idea that the form laws, faulty content of the laws, half- landlord, after all, has every right to have hearted enforcement, and the widespread evic- his land back, notwithstanding the law . . . tions of tenants traceable to the legislation Sometimes there have been offers of money itself. To this should be added the prevalent by the landlords in return for voluntary failure of rent provisions and the wholesale surrender of land . . . All too often . . . the evasion of the ceiling provisions upon which landlord is in a stronger position vis-h-vis the new ownership was to rest. Reform was in the tenant and has a greater capacity to the air before the enactment of the laws; and rally official (village) support . . . a tenant this, combined with the long delays in passing has often thought it fit that he should sur- a law, made it possible for the landlords to re- render the land to maintain good relations, duce the number of claimants for rights in the particularly if by this action he can make land by evicting tenants or shifting them to the status of farmhands. The same held true after the laws went into effect. This doesn't 19. "Reports of the Committee of the Panel on mean that all tenants were thus treated, but Land Reforms" (1956), p. 36. there is enough evidence that for large numbers 20. Tenants who are supposed to be protected by the reforms were far from a blessing. law against eviction. Agrarian Reform in India 379 certain that he could continue his lease on satisfying or reconciling the interests of the another part of the land . . . Many a land- owners and the tenants. The provisions on re- lord has often taken advantage of the ig- sumption, which in effect meant ejection of norance of his protected tenant and has tenants from a certain amount of land, varied asked him to leave on the ground that the from state to state. A few examples will suffice: period of lease was over! Notwithstanding In Assam an owner can resume 3313 acres and the fact that a protected tenancy, by defini- in Punjab, 30 standard acres,21 subject to the tion, is one which is free from the question minimum area to be left with the tenant. In of time duration, many a tenant has left the Andhra Pradesh the landlord can resume the land lest he should be involved in litigation entire area. In West Bengal a landlord who with the landlord. Cases have been noticed held 10 acres or less was permitted to take where tenants have had to leave due to their back the entire area; if he held more than 10 inability to pay enhanced rents-a device acres, he could resume 10 acres or two-thirds used by many landlords to eject them, not- of the area owned, whichever was greater, sub- withstanding the law . . . in plenty of cases ject to a maximum of 25 acres. On the other force has been used for evictions.21 hand, in Uttar Pradesh the landlord couldn't resume any land. The emphasis in the above is largely on poor The minute this right became part of or total lack of enforcement, the superior posi- law, it opened a Pandora's box of all sorts of tion of the landowner, and the inferior social problems. In most cases the legislation favored and economic status of the tenant in the village. the owners, but even so they went beyond the Additionally, the laws are very complex and permissible. This was not difficult to do with the "bulk of the peasantry find it difficult to policing of the provisions at a minimum. More understand them. Moreover, after the enact- than that, there was a built-in contradiction ment of a law, it was generally left to the ten- between the right of resumption on the one ants and landlords to take advantage of the hand and security of tenure on the other. This provisions of the new legislations and no is so particularly in the case of small and organized effort was made to make the tenants middle landlords because there just is not understand the law and to ensure that they enough land to meet the goals of both recom- take advantage of it."22 There is, however, an- inendations. It applies to big landlords as well other side to the story, namely, the faulty con- because they can resume any parcel or parcels tent of the legislation itself and of some of the of land cultivated by a tenant. The Planning questionable underlying principles upon which the reforms are based. The most glaring mani- festation of this is the right of the landlord to 23. A "standard acre" is the measure against resume tenanted land for what is euphemisti- which comparable values can be assigned to different cally called "personal cultivation." classes of land. This was first evolved in Punjab in On the face of it, the right to resume land the attempt to give uniformity to the amount of land distributed among refugees from Pakistan after for personal cultivation was a sensible policy the partition of India. For example, if an average toward what the Planning Commission called acre of irrigated or generally good land yields 20 'small and middle" owners. The commission bushels and an unirrigated and generally poorer went to great pains defining and redefining the land yields only 10 bushels, this meant in practice of "personal that a settler was entitled to an acre of irrigated meaning ocultivation," the condi- land or two acres of unirrigated. In instances where tions under which it should apply, setting given land yields more than the standard acre, that rlimits to resumption, and all with an eye to land gets a higher valuation than the standard acre. The criteria in some states is not necessarily yield of principal crops; it can be the rate of assessment, the rent rate, or the market value of the land. Cur- 21. A. M. Khusro, Economic and Social Effects of rently, the equivalent of standard acre in terms of Jagirdari Abolition and Land Reforms in Hyderabad, an ordinary acre in a number of states is as follows: sponsored by the Research Programmes Committee Andhra Pradesh, 2.32; Kerala, depending upon the of the Planning Commission of India (Hyderabad: region, 1.92 to 1.61; Gujarat, 1.58 to 1.23; and Osmania University, 1958), p. 169. Madhya Pradesh, 2.38 to 1.33. Planning Commission, 22. "Reports of the Panel," p. 37. "Progress of Land Reform" (1963), pp. 120--23. 380 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Commission's Panel on Land Reform gives an 35 percent, and Madras 40 percent.2" In other excellent example of legal loopholes and its ad- states (Gujarar, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan) verse effect on the position of the tenants un- the prescribed rent is as low as one-sixth of the der the law. The panel states: gross product, while in still others it accords with plan recommendations. However, what- Though a restriction wvas placed in many ever the prescribed rents, for reasons just men- states on the extent of land which a landlord tioned, in most cases they are more nearly in may resume by ejecting tenants, no provi- accord with the customary rents of the pre- sion was made for the demarcation of the reform days. resumable area as distinct from the non- resumable area. Thus, though the landlord's Converting tenants to owners right of resumption was limited in extent, he was able to exercise an undue influence The tenancy reforms have done rather poorly over all the tenants which added to his bar- in shifting tenants to an ownership base. Some gaining power and rendered the law ineffec- tenants have purchased land, and it would be tive. He could even extort money by threat- extremely useful to know just how much land ening to resume land.24 had changed hands, changes directly traced to the land purchase reform provisions. (Surely We conclude that, while the principle of just as important would be a census on land self-cultivation of a limited area was well- ownership and tenure in which the states intentioned on the part of the Planning Com- would give most careful consideration to the mission and its refinement in the second plan evasions that have already taken place under much to the point, in the context of the real the land reforms.) But no data are available to distribution of power-economic, organiza- give even an approximately correct idea as to tional, and political-between the classes af- how much land was acquired. But even if fected, it resulted in a chaotic situation of available, they would indicate that relatively which the landlords have taken full advantage. little land changed hands from landlord to Despite the examples cited above, data on ejec- tenant. Recent observation in the field and the tions and of those who remained securely on official testimony make this clear. The "Review the land with occupancy rights are practically of the First Five-Year Plan" (p. 322) has nonexistent. But one thing can be said with this to say: "Judged by the amount of land certainty: The right of resumption for "per- purchased by tenants and the numbers of ten- sonal cultivation" has weakened the main goal ants who have been able to acquire ownership of security of tenure and, doing that, has made rights, the steps (for making tenants owners) the enforcement of reduced rents impossible. can be said to have produced no significant The latter is not easy to enforce even given results." The second plan adds more of the security of tenure; the demand for a piece of same: "Progress in this direction has been land in India is keenly competitive with land slow." This is partly because the land ceilings, and alternative occupations scarce. With much about which more later, are inoperative in of security of tenure in the rayotwari areas in India and partly because the resumption scheme jeopardy, it is altogether a hopeless task. Re- limits drastically a tenant's right to purchase a sumption of land for personal cultivation particular piece of land. The reason is simple: served to accentuate the inherent difficulties of A landlord can render that right ineffective by that problem. The recommendations of the saying that he would resume that particular Planning Commission were not without influ- plot of land for personal cultivation. But there ence upon the official fixation of rents in the are other and more vital reasons which under- states, although in Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir, lie the weakness of the entire purchase idea as and for sharecroppers in West Bengal, the rent incorporated in the legislation. may go as high as 50 percent of the crop, Bihar 25. Forty or 50 percent of the crop is rental for a single crop; if the land is double cropped, the 24. "Reports of the Panel," p. 37. rental in most cases is less than doubled. Agrarian Reform in India 381 From the point of view of the tenant's right ments in commerce or industry. These are of land purchase, the reforms have three serious facts that must be faced by reformers in ap- shortcomings: The price of land is often much proaching the question of land pricing so as too high for the tenant to brave it; the install- not to impose a heavy burden upon the would- ment payments are spaced within a too limited be new owners. period of time; and the transaction itself is Viewed in this light and assuming that the essentially a matter of landlord-tenant bar- state governments are bent on promoting land gaining, which is to say that the outcome is ownership among tenants, the price fixed must heavily weighted in favor of the landlord. The be considerably below the market price. Land purchase price has been determined in the purchase in India under reform conditions can- following ways: as a multiple of land revenue, not be an ordinary real estate transaction where occasionally with a wide range, such as 15 to seller, broker, and buyer meet in a free market. 20 times in Assam, 20 to 200 times in the If it were and if tenants were able to pay the former state of Bombay; as a multiple of rent; going price, there would be no need for this as a portion of market value-three-fourths of part of the reform. Since this is not the case, market value in Punjab; and as "fixed" value, the price fixed by a government must be an as in Bihar, with a wide range of from Rs30 to arbitrary one, the degree of its arbitrariness Rs1,050 per acre. But whatever the method depending upon how a reformer answers this of official prescriptions and even if they favor question: "For whose benefit is the measure the tenants, realities observed in the field are designed?" Important, too, from the point of quite different. The role of agrarian land tri- view of enforcement of the reform is that the bunals, the supposed watchdogs of land trans- purchase transaction must not be left in the actions, is not nearly as important as might hands of landlord and tenant. The government have been anticipated. A landlord is not really must purchase the land from the landlord and, compelled by law to sell lands; and, when he in turn, resell it to the tenant. The reason for does wish to sell, he is seldom constrained by this is obvious: If left to the landlord and the official provisions. This is the limiting tenant, even a fixed price favoring the tenant factor so far as the tenant is concerned because, is not likely to prevail. Enough has been said installments aside, few tenants in India can about the dominating role of the Indian land- take on such a burden of financial responsi- lord to labor the point. These are not theo- bility. It should be added here that three states, retical musings. Pre-Second World War re- Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Mysore, have en- form attempts in Japan foundered on just this acted legislation that gives them the right to point. The lessons of that experience eventually resume land directly for reallocation to the led to fixed prices favorable to the tenants as tenants. Only Uttar Pradesh exercised that well as to direct government intervention in right; in Kerala and Mysore that right has not the buying and selling of land. In India, on been so far exercised.21 the other hand, the legislative enactments are In India as in other underdeveloped (and markedly at fault on these all-important issues. developed) and densely populated areas, land Co-joined with indifferent enforcement and prices are high, bearing no relationship to its the failure of the ceiling measures, the results productive value. Unrealistically low assess- are as they are: Little land has shifted from ment of agricultural land and comparatively hands of the landlords to those of the tenants, low land revenue are the main reasons for the or, in the words of the draft outline of the high market value, particularly in areas with third plan, "action in this direction has been high population pressures on the land. Added inadequate in most areas." to this are such factors as social and political prestige and influence gained from the posses- sion of land as well as a favored tax position Ceilings as compared with that of alternative invest- One of the basic reform objectives was to re- duce the number of tenants and increase the number of new owner farmers. Its main tool 26. "Progress of Land Reform," pp. 57-58. is the well-tried and tested land "ceiling," a 382 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 device which permits a landlord to retain a surplus of about 37 million acres. According certain amount of land (ceiling), the re- to one assessment, "this would be 90 percent mainder or excess being earmarked for redis- of the area required to give any/every landless tribution among the landless. It is the size of family a minimum basic holding or 42 percent the ceiling that determines how far-reaching of the area required to increase sub-basic hold- the program might be, always with the proviso ings to basic holdings; or 29 percent of the that the ceiling is enforced, area required for both these purposes. The The extreme maldistribution of land in basic holding was assumed to be 2.5 acres for India with nearly a quarter of the rural house- one state, 5 acres for seven states, and 10 acres holds owning no land at all and another one- for ten states."21 Nothing came of it in prac- fifth owning less than an acre each provides tice, for the problems associated with legis- ample social and economic reasons for the use lating and implementing ceilings are indeed of the ceiling as a means of redressing this most formidable even in conditions of good imbalance. The ceiling question gave rise to administration, sound and speedy legislative more debate and arguments than any other re- enactments, and a minimum of opposition. form issue, for it did touch on the raw nerve Such conditions, however, are not prevalent in of tampering with private property rights. But India. Some land vested in state governments regardless of the arguments for or against ceil- was distributed. Not much land was taken ings, the Planning Commission laid down the from the private owners who did have land in basic policy, concluding that "We are, there- excess of the fixed ceilings. With becoming fore, in favor of the principle that there candor, the Planning Commission in the third should be an upper limit to the amount of land five-year plan noted that "on the whole, it that an individual may hold.2- The second would be correct to say that in recent years plan went a step further, concentrating on a transfers (illegal) of land have tended to de- number of questions of execution and policy. feat the aims of the legislation for ceilings and These questions were: to reduce its impact on rural economy." For the moment-and for the foreseeable future- 1. to what land should ceilings apply; the question of how much land might have 2. the levels at which the ceiling may gener- been available for redistribution is academic. ally be fixed; Holdings have been divided up among mem- 3. what exemptions should be made; bers of families so that on the face of it they 4. steps necessary to prevent mala fide trans- are under the ceiling. Field observations re- fers; veal that many didn't bother even with such 5. the rate of compensation; and precautionary steps. There was no reason why 6. redistribution of land, among those with they should have. The legislative enactment primary claims.8 did not contain the "teeth" to prevent such It would take one too far afield to touch transfers, as was notably the case in Japan and even in general terms upon all or any of the Taiwan. Enforcement was not a problem; questions just mentioned. What should be said really, there was little to enforce. is that in a formal way the states followed the recommendation of the Planning Commission, lVhy reforms are subverted each state determining the ceilings, compensa- tion, exemptions, priority of land allotments, We have noted the reasons why it is so and also taking note of illegal transfers before difficult to carry out land reform programs in legislative enactments and how to deal with most countries. It cannot be stressed strongly such transfers. enough why in India a similar attempt is in- At one time, a rough estimate attributed to comparably more difficult than in most other the Planning Commission indicated a possible countries. And yet this is not a justification 27. First Five-Year Plan, p. 188. 29. Krishna, Some Aspects of Land Reform, p. 28. Second Five-Year Plan, p. 194. 229. Agrarian Reform in India 383 for vague and complicated measures generously shared in the process, which would have been seeded with loopholes and for the entire array one of the important ways of enhancing their of evasions which separate so many tenants- political and social consciousness. And failure literally and figuratively-from the land, re- to stir them up turned the would-be partici- Iduce their production incentives, affect ad- pants into mere onlookers and, for a good versely overall production, and on the social many tenants, with results to match. and economic scale keep them near the bottom of the village hierarchy. Position of landless and farn laborers We have already pointed out that the po- litical milieu of India with its antireformism The reforms in India aimed at the improve- shared by landowners and many politicians ment of the condition not only of the tenant alike has much to do with this state of affairs. but of the agricultural laborer as well. These It will be pointed out in another section, "The workers form the group whose major source of latest phase," that the nature of the village it- income is agricultural wages, the group which self contributes to the same end. That part of is at the very bottom of the social and economic these notes also ventures to suggest certain structure of the village. The increase in popu- corrective actions. But at this juncture we wish lation has borne particularly harshly on this to underscore the proposition that the peasants, section of the population because of the heavy too, have been unwitting allies of all those who underemployment from which it already suf- have done so much to subvert some of the most fered. The sheer number of agricultural laborers important segments of the reforms. and the continuous rise in their numbers, more It is a singular experience for a close ob- recently augmented by dispossessed tenants, server or student of land reforms in other coun- makes any ameliorative effort very difficult to tries to find many tenants in India surrendering carry out. In 1956-57 out of a total of 66 land to owners even though they have a right million rural households, agricultural labor to remain on it undisturbed. It is equally households were estimated at 16.3 million or anomalous to find tenants surrendering their nearly 25 percent of the total. Of those, 57 per- all-important "protected" status in exchange cent were landless, while 43 percent held small for the uncertainty of finding another piece of pieces of land, either owned or leased. Nearly land or becoming another member of the rural 75 percent of the workers are casual laborers, proletariat. The answers to this puzzle are many depending upon a daily wage; the remainder and closely intertwined, but one of them are so-called "attached" laborers, the attach- stands out: lack of political and social con- ment arrangement ranging from one month to sciousness. Where this is the case, the tenant one year. The total number of days of employ- sacrifices his position of security and status. ment of a male laborer is 221, of which 21 The obverse is just as true and such cases are days are in nonagricultural activities. Harvest- not lacking. In trying to single out the basic ing being the busiest season, it accounts for 25 reason explaining the lack of will to stand up percent of the man-days worked; plowing and for their rights, one concurs with Dr. Khusro's transplanting account for 14 and 7 percent of .major finding that, although the peasants hun- total man-days, respectively. The earnings and gered for the land or to remain on the land way of life of this village group which consists securely on reasonable terms, they neither of from 80 to 90 million persons was pithily fought nor agitated for their economic "libera- summed up as follows: "The agricultural labor tion" in post-independence days. The reforms households cannot generally make both ends in India are not a result of popular demand meet and are thus in chronic debt."-(' but rather the brainchild of the intellectuals of These are some of the basic facts; and it is the Congress Party. This is not a criticism of obvious from them that agricultural labor poses external intervention; on the contrary, such grave economic, political, and social problems. interveners are indispensable catalysts of a re- The first, second, and third plans have all ad- form movement. Where the criticism comes in is that they stopped short of going one step 30. Agricultural Labor in India, vol. 1, pp. 43, further-of seeing to it that the peasants 46-47. 384 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 dressed themselves to the problem of improv- With respect to the first factor, it is signifi- ing its lot. The first plan included proposals cant that mechanization or rationalization of for its settlement on land "and protection agriculture is beginning to take place and is against ejectment from homesteads." As to the likely to increase with the passage of time. In first, "not much progress was made in schemes the short-run, therefore, a reduction rather than' for land settlement;'31 as to the ejectment an increase in labor input is to be expected. from homesteads, this is a recurring theme in Despite the rise in the rural population, the the subsequent plans. Considerable sums of demand for labor in the harvest season forces money were allocated for a variety of welfare wages up sufficiently to justify the introduc- services for the benefit of this group, but the tion of labor-saving machinery. And sometimes question of settlement on the land was and is not only in consequence of higher wages dur- of continuous concern to the Planning Com- ing the harvesting season; in the Punjab, for mission. Since above-ceiling land is not avail- example, new farm equipment is often labor able, culturable wasteland and land gathered saving, that is, intended to displace hand labor. under the Bhoodan movement through the ef- Mechanization, the main purpose of which is forts of Vinoba Bhave have been brought into to increase agricultural productivity, may have play. It is not clear just how much of this poor similar results if India's experience is like that land was distributed nor among how many of other countries; and a reduction in the de- agricultural laborers. But the amount of land mand for the presently already unemployed or and the number of settled laborers could not underemployed agricultural workers is probably have been very significant, judging by the effort inevitable. The government of Punjab is help- provided for in the third plan. Thus, "It is en- ing the process along by subsidizing the pur- visioned that during the Third Plan efforts chase of farm equipment to the tune of 50 per- would be made to settle 7 lakh (700,000) cent of the sales price. This raises a question families of landless agricultural laborers on of policy: Is it wise to take measures leading about 5 million acres . . .32 It is fair to con- to the "economization" of labor? It appears to clude that, though some of these workers may us that, given the current state of all aspects have gained a new footing on some kind of of Indian economic development, any policy land, the vast majority of this group still carries which has the effect of increasing the rural on as of old. Moreover, since the group grows labor surplus before urban occupations can in size by from 2 to 2.5 million yearly, the provide employment not only for the growing immediate concern is not so much betterment urban labor forces (which it cannot quite do as warding off the worsening of the existing today) but for rural workers also will only add conditions. to an unemployment problem already beyond What of the prospects in the years ahead? the capacity of the economic and political sys- Aside from India's long-range and basic prob- tem to cope with. lem of the high rate of population growth, the Agricultural development of the type indi- answer to the question depends upon two cated cannot result in absorption of any sig- shorter range factors: the extent of agricultural nificant volume of rural surplus labor. We development as a major source of village em- shall point out subsequently in some detail that. ployment and the extent of the demand for within the foreseeable future industrialization rural labor to be generated by the country's cannot do it either. The answer or partial an- industrial and commercial expansion. With re- swer lies in increased employment within agri- spect to the first, the answer depends in part culture and, as a corollary, increased agricultural on whether agricultural development will be production. To attain that: employment oriented or labor displacing through the utilization of modern equipment. This requires capital formation and changes As regards the second, the answer is not at all in techniques; but not all techniques can be reassuring for years to come. introduced in the context of heavy under- employment. If we selected those techniques 31. Third Five-Year Plan, p. 375. which are labor-absorbing rather than labor- 32. "Progress of Land Reform," p. 26. displacing in character, and if we used labor Agrarian Reform in India 385 for capital construction, we meet the re- economic activity that springs in circle from quirements of increased productivity as well large cities through medium cities to villages. as of employment, without having to in- Whatever the long run holds in store for dulge in costly population transfers. Fortu- the great multitudes of the underemployed nately, agriculture happens to be precisely village proletariat, up to now the improve- the sector where, with a small additional ments have not been significant. The third plan amount of fixed capital, a relatively large is frank on the subject; it notes that "It is output can be generated . . . If only organi- apparent from the experience of the first two zation could be brought to bear upon the Plans that while special schemes in the interest situation and surplus labor geared to the of agricultural laborers are useful, they can activity of further capital formation, we touch only the fringe of the problem." The have an elaborate list of capital projects third plan itself provided for programs esti- which can be put through."a mated to cost Rs114 crores for the welfare of the village backward classes, a considerable The list covers such well-known items as tevlaebcwr lse,acnieal Theig ist covedrsinag suc liel w sitlem a- part of which was to have benefited agricultural irrigation and drainage facilities, single crop- workers. Public works projects were to have png ito double cropping, other changes in been the major component of the programs, cropping patterns, reclamation, leveling and but in most instances they have barely gotten bunding of land, more frequent fertilization, off the ground. Community development with weeding, and so forth-all absorbing more its agro-industrial plans has (lone no better. labor in the process of more intensive cultiva- The problem of how to provide an additional tion of the land and all activities the impor- 100 days of employment for only 2.5 million tance of which cannot be overestimated. persons by the last year of the third plan is The absorption of surplus labor within agri- still to be resolved. What compounds it is that culture will also depend, at least to a degree, the persistence of a rigid social structure largely upon the opportunities that public works based on caste makes the position of agricul- schemes in rural India might readily provide, tural laborers particularly vulnerable. This is such as flood control, river embankments, large especially true in conditions of lagging rural irrigation and drainage canals, roads, bridges, development. In these circumstances, the writers and so on. These can produce not only em- t . plomen bu esental ura caita, wth si- of the third plan come to this conclusion: ployment but essential rural capital, with posi Ultimately, it is by achieving rapid and inten- tive effect upon farm production. In addition, sive development in the rural areas as part of such measures can, as they have done in other the process of economic development for the countries, stimulate the latent local talent which country as a whole that the landless section of awaits only the chance and resources to demon- countrylas a olatthecandlesstetinlo the (village) population can be substantially strate what this combination can attain. In the benefited."'' final analysis, what is involved here is the ques- The conclusion of the Planning Commission tion whether rural India can reach its full is quite right, especially when industrialization growth potential if the wastage of her man- is considered as a possible means of syphoning power no longer continues unabated; all this, off rural unemployment. Dr. Khusro's illumi- iprovided the organizational problems generated nating Economic Development with No Popu- by an effort of this kind can be successfully lation Transfers throws much light on the overcome. Another possible source of rural- subject. In brief, he divides the pool of the nonrural employment opportunities lies in available labor supply into two categories: what John Lewis calls "The Agro-Industrial nonagricultural and agricultural. Calculating Rural-Urban Continuum,"-" a combination of noarcluladagilta.Cluaig the nonagricultural labor supply based on 2 33. A. M. Khusro, Economic Development with and 1.75 percent growth of population per No Population Transfers: A Study in Demand for annum, he arrives at this conclusion: "If there Supply of Labour in the Non-agricultural Sector of were no other source of the supply of labor, the Indian Economy, 1951-76, Institute of Eco- nomic Growth, Delhi, Occasional Paper no. 4 (Lon- don: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 41-42. 34. John P. Lewis, Quiet Crisis in India, p. 183. 35. Third Five-Year Plan, pp. 376, 378. 386 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 i.e., if the non-agricultural sector were the only tions then arise. If the door (in India) is sector in the economy, a state of full employ- closed, even though temporarily, for any net ment would be reached by 1975"'6 if the rate absorptions of agricultural population in of population growth is 2 percent and in 1972 non-agricultural jobs, what is the solution if the rate is 1.75 percent. This would not be for underemployment in the agricultural bad, but the findings become ominous when the sector? Secondly, if population is not trans- obvious is noted: the agricultural sector with ferred and food is not released, how is the its millions of unemployed and underemployed, non-agricultural sector to get its annual in- confounding matters still further. V. K. R. V. crement of raw material and food for the Rao's study on Population Growth and Its Re- annually growing labor force of that sector? lation to Employment in India, referred to by The answer to the first would seem to be Dr. Khusro, leads to the same conclusions: a increased employment within agriculture speedier reduction of birth rate and agricul- rather than in the other sector; the solution ture-not industry-as the prime vehicle to to the second is increased productivity of absorb its surplus labor. agriculture. Since increased productivity de- The lessons to be drawn from all of the pends on capital formation in agriculture, above are clear, as the preceding paragraphs the obvious solution to the dual problem demonstrate. But the problem of what to do of low productivity and low employment is with the rural underemployed is so crucial that to use the underemployed labor in the agri- we do not fear laboring the point by way of a cultural sector to build capital within that summary in Dr. Khusro's words: sector, rather than attempt to transfer it to If the demand for labor in the non-agricul- the non-agricultural sector. tural sector is not sufficient to absorb the This is the crux of the author's summary. It supply of labor from within that sector for doesn't differ in essentials from the position many years to come, then the precepts of taken by the Planning Commission, except the recent theories of development about that Dr. Khusro and, on another occasion, Dr. population transfers have to be modified . . . Rao have furnished chapter and verse to until a situation of unemployment and un- demonstrate that for a long time to come re- deremployment persists in non-agriculture, lief to the underemployed agricultural labor every man that is transferred from agricul- can come only from greater development of .ure to non-agriculture merely adds to the agriculture itself, the emphasis being on labor- pool of unemployed in the latter sector . . . absorbing rather than labor-displacing tech- Apart from creating open unemployment niques. It is not at all certain that the new and all that it connotes, transfers of popula- trends in Indian agriculture will be of this tion now appear to be positively wasteful, character; what little there is points in the for the cost of such transfers are unneces- foritheicoste of sc .Traners tr u es- opposite direction. Nor is it certain that gov- sarily incurred . . . Two fundamental ques- ernment policy can effect a change in this trend. If, on the other hand, agricultural de.- 36. P. 32 and tables on pp. 37-39. Dr. Khusro velopment does proceed apace along the line adds a footnote to his conclusions, part of which is propounded here, the amelioration of the con- reproduced here: "Unless the set of assumptions ditions of the farm laborer is possible. But a least favorable to our argument is improbable or word of caution is in order. The ameliorative wrong, the results hold good. And even if they are effects can be realized, provided they are not wrong-i.e., the assumed rates of income growth are overtaken by further surge in population num- too meager or the share of non-agricultural income is too small, or capital-output ratios too low or bers; and we come back once again to the capital-labor ratios too high, or the assumed rates of question of population control. There is an- population growth are too large-even then, the other item that must not be overlooked. As- effect of introducing the correction will be to ex- suming the population surge tapers off, the haust the pool of unemployed somewhat sooner. It degree to which the condition of farm laborers is also possible that the mistakes in our assumptions d will be of a compensating character, the effect of can be improved will depend upon the loosen- one being countered by that of the other." ing of the social structure of the village. If the Agrarian Reform in India 387 line of demarcation between "high" and "low" done, and heavy financial assistance to insure is not narrowed, the position of agricultural the success of such farms. Clearly, this is not labor will remain precarious. While the effect cooperation for specific proposals such as tube of more employment cannot be gainsaid, the wells or land consolidation; it is presumably social status of the "underprivileged" or their cooperation for an integrated farm enterprise. "acceptance" as part of the village community There has been no lack of arguments to is of great importance. So long as betterment demonstrate the fallacy of this type of agrarian continues to be measured along a social ladder reform." It is not our intention to add to the which shows little or no resiliency, it is in- debate but rather to state the official policy, evitable that even more employment will not what it led to, why so few become "coopera- preclude the laborer's getting the short end of tive" farmers, and what of the future of this the sIm total of all the measures intended for type of farming. the reconstruction of the agricultural economy While in agriculture the plans concentrated of India. mainly on the reforms already discussed, co- operative farming was not neglected either. The first plan approached the matter rather gently, suggesting that "Small and medium The preceding references to agrarian reform in farms in particular should be encouraged and India relate to individual, private cultivation assisted to group themselves into cooperative of land, be it owned or tenanted. But it is of farming societies."'s This expression of hope some importance to touch on yet another type gave way to a rather bold and ambitious view of agrarian reform-cooperative joint farming. voiced in the second five-year plan: "The main This should be mentioned not because it has task during the Second Five-Year Plan is to attained a significant degree of acceptance but take such essential steps as will provide sound rather because of (a) the considerable ideo- foundations for the development of coopera- logical preoccupation in important circles of tive farming so that over a period of 10 years India with the question of peasant proprietor- or so a substantial proportion of agricultural ship versus farm cooperativization and (b) the lands are cultivated on cooperative lines."" demonstrated gulf between official intention Sweeping as this statement was, the Indian and the peasants' attitude in regard to that in- National Congress, in its Nagpur resolution tention. (January 1959), went the Planning Commis- The rationale behind cooperative farming sion one better. It affirmed without equivoca- runs like this: small-scale farming in India is ion that "the future agrarian pattern should inefficient, whereas large-scale voluntary co- be that of cooperative joint farming." Despite operative farming is efficient. The latter would this, the third plan deviated from this dictum provide fuller employment for the landless; even if asserting that "it is essential to inten- give substance to the idea of social justice; sify efforts to develop cooperative farming make better use of available and borrowed re- throughout the country and to realize as sources and create a better technological base; speedily as possible the objective in the second provide a food surplus normally not available plan"; at the same time and perhaps mindful from small-scale, individual producers; finally, of the fact that not much had been accom- is a "higher," "socialist" form of social and plished during the first and second plans, its economic activity. With the country or rather emphasis is much more cautious and matter of the Congress Party committed, at least in theory, to a socialistic welfare state, the last reason is not among the least important ones 37. N. G. Ranga and P. R. Paruchuri, The Peas- propounded in favor of cooperative farming ant and Cooperative Farming; Rai Krishna, "So- poone cialism and Farming," Modern Statesman (June 19, As to the main features of a cooperative farm, 1957); Raj Krishna and others, Cooperative Farm- they are as follows: the pooling of the land ing-Some Critical Reflections (New Delhi: All and centralized management, the retention of India Congress, 1956). proprietory rights in the land, ownership divi- 38. First Five-Year Plan, p. 194. dends in addition to remuneration for work 39. Second Five-Year Plan, p. 194. 388 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 fact, while accepting the recommendation of tion, in most instances it is not the small or the Working Group on Cooperative Farming the medium farmers who find their way into to set up 3,200 cooperative pilot projects, or these cooperatives. The greater part of the 10 per district. The plan states: "In the main, membership is a mixture of a few fairly large cooperative farming has to grow out of the owners-often not more than one or two-and success of the general agricultural effort a much larger number of agricultural workers, through the community development move- tenants, and ex-tenants who are invited to join ment, the progress of cooperation in credit, for two reasons: (a) to attain the minimum marketing, distribution and processing, the prescribed membership and (b) to provide growth of rural industry, and the fulfillment of the requisite labor force. Some who pooled the objectives of land reform.".'. So much for their land are absentee, and often the resident official policy. What of the results? owners do not participate in cultivation of the Measured in terms of numbers and size, as land either. The agricultural laborers do the of the end of October 19641 there was a total work for a stipulated wage, which doesn't ex- of 1,806 "pilot" societies and 1,651 "nonpilot" ceed the prevailing village wage. Their ad- societies. The first had a total membership of vantage lies in a longer period of employment, about 32,000 and covered an area of 184,000 but they are not really members of cooperative acres; the respective figures for the second farms; they represent the "bogus" membership. type were 37,000 and 200,000. The average Only part of the owners' land (40 percent in membership of a pilot society was 18 and of a the case of Madras societies), often the poorer nonpilot, 22; the average size of the farm was part, is assigned to the cooperative. The few 102 acres as against 120 acres for nonpilot so- exceptions aside, a landowner organizes a co- ciety. The fact that numerically they are far operative in order to get the rather substantial below anything anticipated by the second plan financial assistance from the government. In or by the Congress Party is important for what the Punjab, for instance, "the eagerness to it reveals about the premature expectations possess a tractor seems to be the main motiva- and the lack of response on the part of the tion force for the organization of a society." farmers. But more important than this is what And it can be other reasons, such as the more lies behind these statistical bare bones. The readily available inputs or the paying off of old official findings and personal interviews with debts. Another reason why one owner or more officials of community development are not organize a cooperative is to evade some of the too illuminating. But the inquirer is not with- provisions of the tenancy laws. This picture is out help; the state governments (and the union relieved by the fact that there is a small num- government) also farm out all manner of her of societies organized by convinced "co- studies to schools of higher learning. Some of operators," and there are also those organized the evaluation studies are revealing, and the by ex-servicemen, landless, displaced persons, same may be said of a personal visit to two and so forth, on government-owned land; the cooperative farms. problem here is that a good deal of it falls The cooperative farms are indeed voluntary into the category of culturable wasteland. affairs except for certain involuntary influences There are a few genuine cooperative socie- yet to be touched upon. They are heavily fi- ties managed and "owned" by a landowner12 nanced, which is the chief attraction to the in the spirit of true cooperation. But the tone members of the farms. Very few live up to the is set by the majority. Therefore, the recurring principle of "jointness" in work, management, refrain that "no joint farming was in evidence and distribution of income. The character of in many of these societies" is not surprising. the membership and why the great majority Some farmers actually work the land individu- of the cooperatives came into being shed much ally within the society. Anticipated land im- light on this point. Contrary to official expecta- provements have been spotty; the hopes for 40. Third Five-Year Plan, p. 209. 42. Daniel Thorner, "Progress for Cooperation 41. The Indian Express (December 21, 1964). in Indian Agriculture" (mimeographed). Agrarian Reform in India 389 significant increases in yields have not been to take "effective steps" to accelerate those realized; the available evidence for the Punjab, programs, which is to say to meet the numeri- Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala cal target of pilot societies as laid down under indicate no superior production compared with the third plan. To clinch this emphasis on that on an individual holding. In fact, a declin- "targetism" rather than quality of performance, ing trend has been reported in the societies of the National Cooperative Farming Advisory the two first-mentioned states. True, occasion- Board saw fit to recommend that "the Govern- ally there has been an economy in animal power ments of Madras and Kerala should reconsider and equipment, but it is not clear with what their decision not to organize any new societies consequences. Poor management and poor allo- until the working of the existing societies was cation of labor tasks had not been conducive improved."-: If, as it appears, numbers count, to the best utilization of the available inputs or not content, then the comments in the preced- in the creation of new crop patterns. And so, ing paragraph should suffice. it is "no wonder cooperative farms in general Even for a staunch proponent of individual, did not achieve spectacular results in terms of private ownership of land individually oper- yields per acre." Nor could these farms demon- pr it is to be regretted that the record of ated,taesatosuerrrgrettehethat-tgedrecord .f strate an, superiority of the much-argued point cooperative joint farming leaves so much to of "economy of size." In short, the authors of be desired. There is room in India for this type one of the principal evaluation studies con- o adl d h cluded that the societies have not attained the of farming among the landless an te ow ners advantages of cooperation. With refreshing of small holdings with next to no other re- candor they arrive at yet another conclusion: sources to Sustain them. Given state reserve "The ruling party which is committed to co- land for the first group plus careful technical operative farming . . . had not mobilized its guidance, financial support, and emphasis on cadre at the grass-roots levels to support this performance rather than numerical targets, the movement." This plaint has a familiar ring chances are that the results of this kind of ex- with respect to the entire agrarian reform issue. periment might present a brighter picture. The In retrospect, one wonders if the supporters landless in particular might be coming in in of cooperative farming in India have probed much greater numbers as members of their own deeply enough into its realities, in the context farm rather than as the coerced ones, for rea- of the Indian village. Hence the apparent as- sons which have little to do with "jointness" or sumption that there is hardly any gap between 'cooperation." If the political leadership is in- the verbalization of an idea and the deed itself. deed so convinced of the promise held out by One may rightly question whether any degree 'cooperative joint farming" that it is willing of exhortation can induce large numbers of to allocate for this purpose scarce resources, let farmers to opt for this type of farm organiza- it be tried among those who have farming tion. Only compulsion imposed by a dictatorial skills but no land of their own and among regime might have done it on a large scale. those who have little land but no resources to As it is, the farmers of India, individualists, . and devotees to their pieces of land and their gount'i'h iW lthis would na e the way of doing things simply took no notice of country's agricultural problems nearer to a this would-be movement-despite the tempting solution, it might ease the lot of some few with prospect of generous financial assistance. The little or no stake in the agricultural scheme of lessons of the current experiment are a very the village; and this is important. Finally, hav- poor augury for any shift in attitude by the ing delineated the scope of cooperative farm- nonjoiners. ing, the confusion aroused by the Magpur Community development is presently trying resolution about cooperativization on the one to correct the situation by: (a) making co- hand and all the other basic reforms on the operative farming an integral part of the Com- other could be very usefully laid to rest. munity Block Development Program, (b) by pouring more financial support into the co- operatives, and (c) by urging a number of states 43. The Indian Express (December 21, 1964). 390 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 The latest phase ports short of specific recommendations as to how to raise the quality of legislative enact- The year 1964 has witnessed an unusual spurt ment and implementation procedures. Whether of land reform activity on the part of the this latest effort will help to redress the balance Planning Commission and the National Devel- at this date is another matter, but we believe opment Council. The cause behind it was the that this kind of official enlightenment is a critical report on tenurial conditions in some precondition of an attempt to improve on past of the food "package" districts, prepared for performance. the Planning Commission.- More specifically, The reports reveal once again the success the National Development Council, in its meet- in abolishing intermediaries, progress in land ing in late December 1963, concluded that "the purchases here and there, as well as the slow speedy execution of the program of land re- prgres and air ther asecs olth forms was vital for increasing agricultural pro- progress and failures of other aspects of the ducton nd srentheing he uralecoomy reform mnovemient; the great variety of tenures duction and strengthening the rural economy and their extreme complexity which would be and called upon the state governments to corm - a source of wonderment, perplexity, and envy plere implementation of the land reform pro- even to a hardbitten Philadelphia lawyer; the grams before the end of the third plan. In a timidity of the tenants to stand up for their meeting of the Land Reforms Implementation rights, born of fear of the landlords; the ab- Committee of the National Development sence of a protecting hand from many state Council held in June 1964, it was stated that legislatures and the character of the village so- plementation ineffective. As a result, provi- clety which doesn't always breed independence sions for security of tenure and rent were nor of thought and action where and when most ston fo seurit oftenre nd rnt erenot needed; the insufficiency of financial and tech- enforced. This leads to problems of production. nical assistance if the psychological and eco- The tenants, for lack of security, cannot get nomic incentives of a measure of new owner- necessary supplies and credits; and, in view of ship, of security of tenure, and reduced rents high rents they have to pay, they cannot utilize are o becgie fu e o and such facilities even if they were available." commissions in the legislative enactments Two items stand out in these deliberations: which, by themselves, have tended to inhibit (a) the recognition that the problem will not implementation; the failure in most cases to just fade away and (b) the tone of urgency inform the intended beneficiaries as to the that somehow reform matters must be dealt ABCs of the enactments; the temporary char- with if the tenants are to get deeply involved acter of some of the laws (Madras); the wide in raising agricultural production on a large time gap between the enactment of new laws acreage of the total cultivated area. and the initiation of implementation, notably The immediately significant result of the in Bihar wnith is twelve-year gap; the lack of deliberations was the appointment of two technical preparation prior to or following the teams of officials from the Planning Comnmis- enactment of a piece of reform legislation; and, sion for an on-the-spot reexamination of the enally, the successful opposition to the reforms agrarian reform problem. Twelve states were by those bent on thwarting them. The recoim- covered and reports for the following nine mendations are pointed and practical in the states had been prepared as of the end of 1964: sense that they can be carried out-provided Bihar, Guajarat, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, the states have the effective will to apply them- Maharashtra, Mysore, Punjab, Rajasthan, and sle otets ihmr io hni h Uttar Pradesh. The reports put the record selves to the task with more vigor than in the staight Prah. T atteportsoputhe whtew , past and, by way of a comment, provided the straight with no attempt to soothe, whitewash, peasants are participants in a movement affect- or gloss over India's agrarian reform doldrums. ing them profoundly. Achievements are not overlooked, but the em- A number of quotations picked at random phasis is on the shortcomings. Nor are the re- throw additional light on the current state of land reform in India and why this issue cannot 44. Wolf Ladejinsky, "Tenurial Conditions and be neglected. This is so unless one is to assume the Package Program.' that: (a) poverty-stricken tenants or poor Agrarian Reform in India 391 farmers in general make good producers and would lead eventually to the ejectment of that (b) social and political stability can be tenants. The purchase price covered a very maintained in rural India for years to come in wide range from 20 to 200 times the as- conditions already noted. In Bihar, for ex- sessment, and the tribunals had to determine ample, on the subject of tenancy, we read the the purchase price in different cases. Even following: though the tenant's capacity to pay is to be taken into account in determining install- The tenancies in Bihar are still regulated ments, the tribunals have generally fixed the under the Tenancy Act of 1885 with some installments only on the basis of the agree- modifications. Special provisions for con- ments between the tenants and the land- ferment of security of tenure and ownership lords. In some cases the purchase price is on tenants have been made in the Ceiling high and the number of installments is so Act, but this provision will apply only to small as to render payment difficult. the tenants of owners who are subject to the ceiling. As the number of such owners is not Little wonder that "in a very (great) many likely to be significant, not many tenants cases purchases have become ineffective on ac- are likely to benefit from the provisions of count of the pressure of the landlords." This in the Ceiling Act. Practically all the leases in turn leads to the ejectment of tenants alto- the area are oral and according to the law; gether. The suggestion of the team that therefore, the tenants should have security State Mortgage Bank advance purchase loans of tenure. Hovever, it is generally admitted would not solve the main problem because few that this law is completely ineffective. A tenants, if any, especially in India, are in a tenant holding land from a raiyat acquires position to buy land at a price fixed by the occupancy rights on twelve years continuous landlord even if the installments were more possession. Few have acquired the right of widely spaced, namely, from the currently pre- occupancy so far. scribed twelve installments in ten years to twenty installments in as many years. In any While the share rent cannot exceed one-fourth event, the high price alone couldn't meet the of the produce of the land, "in actual practice, sensible recommendation of the Planning Coin- the rent payable by the tenant is usually half mission that the total burden of annual pay- of the gross produce; and, in some cases where ments falling upon the new owner, including it is fixed in terms of a given quantity of pro- installment of the purchase price and the land duce or its value, the rent goes up to even about revenue to the government, should not exceed 65 percent of the gross produce." Adding to one-fourth to one-fifth of the gross produce. this the tendency of a landlord to change his just as Gujarat state represents a case of tenants with little difficulty and the failure of how not to convert tenants into owner cUlti- the ceiling law, the case of Bihar speaks for vators, "Madhya Pradesh presents a classic ex- itself. ample of how a good measure of tenancy re- The state of Gujarat demonstrated many of form is becoming ineffective due to lack of the reform handicaps similar to those of Bihar, adequate steps for implementation. The law but of special interest is that part of the legis- provides for ownership for all tenants (on that lation which intended to convert tenants into portion of land which the landless cannot re- owner cultivators through land purchases. It sume). In practice, very few have become shows what happens when two unequal owners." The law is too complicated-and so parties-landlords and tenants-are presumed are the procedures involving its application- to bargain freely in determining the actual to warrant a detailed comment. But the fol- price of the land as well as the method of pay- lowing quotation from the report should ment. Says the report: suffice: The implementation of laws relating to As the right of ownership accrued auto- tenancy reforms has been slow and unsatis- matically (to tenants on nonresumable land) factory. Further, there is a very large per- it was necessary for the (state) government centage of ineffective purchases which to initiate steps for effecting mutations in 392 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 favor of the new owners under sections 108 is so incoherent and inconsistent that little and 110 of the Madhya Pradesh Land Reve- reliance can be placed upon it." nue Code. This was not done and it was left The former Bombay area of western Maha- to the tenants to make applications for rashtra is not without its serious lapses in the acquisition of ownership. As a result only a application of tenancy provisions. This is true few tenants have acquired ownership. of its principal provisions-conferment of ownership upon tenants in respect of land not The failure on the part of the state to do its subject to resumption. What is obvious is not duty cannot be interpreted as other than an only failure which the report emphasizes but antireform action, thus canceling out a major success as well. By the end of December 1963 provision intended to benefit the tenants. The out of 1,098,000 cases, purchases became effec- failure of the tenants to make the applications tive in 400,000 cases, while 190,000 tenants is typical of the fear and timidity of an un- couldn't keep up with their payments and organized tenantry to face tip to the whims of turned the land back to the owners. One gleans the landlords on this, as on many other issues, from the report that one of the causes of the affecting landlord-tenant relationships in India. failures is that the prices fixed by the agri- In the Punjab where the reforms differ cultural land tribunals (from a range of 20 to somewhat from those of the other states, the 200 times the assessment) is on the high side. authors conclude: "that the main object of the The authors conclude that "the position is dis- tenancy reform is to enable a small landowner turbing and the object of the land reforms may to have unfettered right over his land, un- be defeated if remedial action is not taken." fettered by any opposing claims of the tenant," But there is a more vital reason for the failures and "provisions with regard to maximum rent and the authors recognize it when they say do not appear to be effective." This doesn't that "if transfer of ownership is placed on a mean that no tenant has acquired proprietory compulsory basis, the landlords would not be or occupancy right in land; actually, 19,000 in a position to exercise influence on some of tenants out of an estimated 80,000 have ac- the tenants." The importance of the compul- quired such rights in a total of 128,000 acres. Sory element in land purchasing has been dis- Nevertheless, when the realizations are ineas- cussed previously and no other comment need ured against the anticipations, the above con- be made here. What is surprising and encour- clusions of the investigator of tenancy condi- aging is that, though the purchase program is tions in the Punjab are warranted. very far from completion, 400,000 tenants did In the fact of the most bitter opposition to acquire 1,054,000 acres of land. land reform measures in India, Rajasthan did All of the above sums up the current state yeoman work in abolishing its powerful inter- of India's reforms after more than a decade of mediaries. Rajasthan also tried to regulate rents, legislating and implementations: good in some but in this proved much less successful. In fact, respects, spotty in others, and altogether poor in Rajasthan exemplified the well-tested proposi- many other vital aspects. The most recent effort non that in the absence of security of tenure at fact finding, analysis, and recommendations is one more round on the part of Land Reforms Im- rents cannot be controlled. The Rajasthan plementation Committee of the National Devel- law seeks to regulate rents (the maximum per- opment Council to convince the chief ministers missible rent being one-sixth of the gross pro- of the various states that, for reasons noted duce), but it doesn't provide for secriiy of before, they must revitalize the reforms and tenure. It is nor surprising that, in the absence enforce them. Discussions, or rather negotia- of any provision for security, the provisions tions, are now on. The pressure upon the chief for maximum rent are ineffective. The tenants ministers of the states exerted by the Imple- are in actual fact rack rented . . . paying rent mentation Committee is seemingly greater amounting to half of the produce in many than before. But the outcome is in doubt, for cases." Additionally, "Information on some of only an organized peasantry, conscious of its the important aspects of the implementation strength and capable of telling the seekers of land reforms is either not available or else after their vote that "we support those who Agrarian Reform in India 393 support us," could at least in part effect the social, and legal relations, peculiarly typical of changes which have so far eluded them. Barring the Indian village. Part of it is the subject of that, one of the important preconditions for this paper. But it is more than that. Many peas- improved agricultural production on a large ants have limited economic aspirations and they acreage of the cultivated land of India as well had come to regard poverty almost as an ac- as one of the important preconditions for a cepted mode of living. The idea of self-help is greater degree of social and political equality not widespread, whereas reliance upon the will be long in coming. government to do what they themselves can do is widespread. Whether it be cause or effect, sections of the village suffer from long-standing social and political disabilities in relation to What Reform Requires the elite of the village. Relationships, values, and loyalties often transcend economic self- Social character of the village interest and betterment. One of the banes of and reform from helow village life, heavy indebtedness for social pur- poses (weddings, funerals, and feasts), is just In the preceding paragraph, reference was one more facet of it. Despite the new winds made to effecting changes "at least in part." which even the village cannot escape, faction- The qualifying part of the sentence comes alism is rampant and the barriers separating from the notion that, in India, even good re- group from group have been only slightly form laws and sympathetic implementors dented. Each group knows only too well its might not quite suffice to carry out the basic place in society, deeply entrenched as it is in a tenurial readjustments. The word of caution tradition of inferiority and inequality-condi- stems from the character of the Indian village tions accepted on all sides.' society. The picture is not an encouraging one. Certain religious beliefs, such as the godlike To Gandhi the village was an idealized coin- veneration of beasts of burden-though they munity with eternal verities, the very bedrock are mostly underfed and mistreated-have a of India. But this breaks down upon the evi- debilitating effect on agricultural production. dence of those who cared to look at the village There is not much evidence of community more clinically. To Dr. Ambedkar, the leader goodwill, community loyalty, and of concept of of the harijans (untouchables), "What is village welfare. "Caste and class distinctions the village but a sink of localism, a den of are so acute that the feeling of belonging to ignorance, narrow-mindedness and commu- the community has not yet come. Self-help, nalism?"4 To yet another Indian of vast knowl- therefore, has amounted to helping certain sec- edge and experience, "There are now few tions or individuals only."47 Significant, too, is values which can be said to be common to the that those of the village who in recent decades whole (village) community, and certainly succeeded in acquiring a formal education to there is no common purpose which inspires qualify for a job in government or in business all sections equally." are lost to the village with hardly a trace, which The principal features from which the men- tioned strictures are derived and of concern to meansihe . los go poenitian leadesp us on grounds of agricultural production and Finally, snmce village organization is more so- tenurial adjustments may be summarized like cial than administrative, villages are hardly this. The touchstones of the village society are certain built-in restrictive and unproductive factors which have a long history of economic 46. Walter C. Neale, Economic Change in Rural ' India, pp. 207-08. All India Rural Credit Survey, Report of the Committee of Directions, vol. II, The General Report (Bombay, 1954), pp. 277-78. Dan- 45. Quoted by Hugh Tinker, "The Village in the iel Thorner, The Agrarian Prospect in India (sec- Framework of Development," in Administration and tion I, "Agrarian Structure," and particularly p. 11). Economic Development in India, Ralph Braibanti Kusum Nair, Blossoms in the Dust (particularly and Joseph Spengler, eds. (Durham, N.C.: Duke chapter I). University Press, 1963), p. 97. 47. Kurukshetra (April 1959), p. 12. 394 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 capable of initiating and carrying out needed ceptance of the status quo. As against this, it is economic and social changes. And Dr. Hugh reasonable to assume that the changes noted Tinker concludes, "so one could go on, demon- and the changes in the claims on the land, strating that village associations are powerful buttressed by the application of the existing but mainly negative, working against corporate technology, let alone the first outcroppings of a action and initiative."4s new technology already practiced by some Though this litany of woes is true in its farmers, are bound to induce people to take a essentials, this picture is overdrawn in somber few more steps, even if hesitant steps to begin colors. It must be tempered by the fact that, with, in the direction of greater change. One while the core of the old society is seemingly agrees with Darling that "the new light is intact, there are many deviations from the definitely in conflict with the old," and we be- norm. Many more people, including women, lieve that this conflict born out of develop- take greater interest in village affairs. Village ments already noted will gradually undermine schools are multiplying rapidly and the chil- the still-predominating and inhibiting values dren of the "untouchables" do partake in them, and attitudes. Under such conditions there suffering no overt discrimination. There is would be no place, for example, for the com- widespread acceptance of modern medicine and mon aberration of "voluntary surrenders" of a virtual elimination of malaria; very impor- land, under the reform, by the tenants in favor tant is the fact that younger people contest for of the landlords. the leadership, though it is still largely in the The new stirrings cannot be denied, and hands of the greybeards. Whether it be in these straws in the wind are encouraging signs. Punjab in the north or in parts of Andhra The question is how to speed up the process of Pradesh or still further south in Madras or change, how to be rid of the "aberrations" Kerala, one can find economically developing which benefit neither the tenant nor the land communities with a spirit of self-confidence he cultivates, nor, for that matter, agricultural formerly lacking. As far back as 1925, one of production as a whole. Walter Neale has a the great British civil servants of India, Sir ready answer-effective reforms do not depend Malcolm Darling, in his classic, The Punjab upon gifts from on high and they must be Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, noted the fought for by the "lower orders in the hier- change."' "Everywhere," he wrote, "the age- archy," taking the responsibilities that go with long isolation of the village is breaking down such effort. He quotes approvingly from Gun- and, as intercourse with the outer world is nar Myrdal's Rich Land and Poor: established, a new self-consciousness is dawn- No society has ever substantially reformed ing and new forces are being released." Anyone itself by a movement from above: by a who cares to look at the village at close range simple voluntary decision of an upper class., can see also the much stepped-up momentum springing from its social conscience, to be- of change forty years later, and not only in come equal with the lower classes and to the Punjab. A number of new developments give them free entrance to the class monopo- are in evidence. Universal suffrage has come lies. Ideals and social conscience do play and is practiced; though this right is not used their very considerable role, which should to full advantage by a goodly number of the not be forgotten. But they are weak as self- village community, the vote is theirs and some- propelled forces, originating reforms on a day it will be put to better use. large scale-they need the pull of demands Not all farmers of India are about to turn being raised and pressed for. Calvinist in the sense that the magic of the When power has been assembled by carrot of "profitability" will quickly undo the those who have grievances, then is the time heritage of centuries of tradition and the ac- when ideals and social conscience can be- come effective.!o 48. Tinker, "The Village in the Framework of Development," p. 128. 50. Gunnar Myrdal, Rich Land and Poor: The 49. (New York and London: Oxford University Road to World Prosperity (New York: Harper and Press, 1925), p. 263. Bros., 1958), p. 71. Agrarian Reform in India 395 Dr. Neale sums it all up in terms of an all- large group of the population is confined by embracing principle in these words: "Land re- tradition and law to share a meager product. form does not make new men of peasants- new men make land reforms."" In relation to Indian agrarian reforms as to S those of other countries in need of the same, We come back full circle to where we started: neither Myrdal's nor Neale's prescriptions are how to break the chains which still tie a multi- wholly valid, though an organized, articulate tude of farmers to conditions best discarded. peasantry bent on satisfying its demand is One approaches the task with great diffidence. ineed an essential condition for effecting This is particularly true of one who was privi- changes. Denying the government and the leged to take part in the preparation of the elite the role of a catalyst, Myrdal and Neale agrarian reform, part of the first plan, arid who fly in the face of historical precedent, be it has closely followed its fortunes since then. Western or Asian. The French Revolution Moreover, one is aware of the fact that so (and one of its consequences, establishment of much of the advice proffered the government peasant proprietorship in France) did not wait of India about what is wrong with this or that upon the masses to make their demands; nor facet of its economy sounds like cliche, re- did the English Whigs wait upon their masses sembling the endless repetition of an old, fa- to initiate the long series of political and eco- niliar, much-played-over record. With these nomic reforms beginning in 1832. Perhaps caveats out of the way, the question still re- even more to the point and closer to our own mains: What is to be done on the tenurial times is the case of Japan. Literate Japan was issue in the time immediately ahead? devoid of the constraining forces of a village In attempting to answer this question, it is society is la India; in addition, it had an effec- well to make clear what is now in India not tive cooperative movement and strong tenant- meant by agrarian reform. The problems of farmer unions-to mention only these two ele- land ceiling and, by the same token, of shifting ments. Yet, it took strong initiative from the large numbers of tenants to an ownership base top, indigenous and foreign, to come to grips are not the current issues. This is not the ex- with the agrarian reform issue. With minor pression of a personal predilection. On the variations, the same may be said of Taiwan. contrary, the failure to enforce land ceilings Without equating the two mentioned coun- and institute a working purchase program tries with India, there are, nevertheless, lessons (from the point of view of the would-be in this for the latter, discussed in subsequent owner) has diverted the agrarian reforms of paragraphs. To be sure, the process of change India from their original course: He who in India is excruciatingly more difficult, since cultivates the land should own the land. But the feature of the poverty-stricken village is, in the above-ceiling lands are no more; they have the main and so far, the absence of a strong disappeared into the hands of sons and daugh- tendency to improvement, for reasons already ters; uncles and aunts; cousins and second commented upon. One gets the impression that cousins; "charitable" institutions; and, hard to in certain segments of the rural economy of believe but true, as in a case known to us in India low output and income tend to perpetu- Madras, into a "foundation." Such are the ate themselves. Institutions do chain economics realities and it would be impossible to un- to the past and the breaking of the chains is scramble what was too blithely and with im- essential to progress. Failing that through in- punity scrambled up under the very eyes of the ternal pressures, there is little chance for agrar- state governments. What remains, therefore, of ian reform and significant and widespread ap- the reform program is its less ambitious though plication of new farm practices in general in a important part: the enforcement of security of country laboring under a system in which a tenure and with it the enforcement of fair rents -and the enforcement of the purchase provi- 51. Walter C. Neale, Economic Change in Rural sions of nonresumahle land. This, in briefest India (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), form, is what the reform is about at the present p. 258. time. 396 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 On the legislative side, this program calls (landowners) and the kudiyans (tenants), the for a number of enactments and amendments. then existing government stepped in and took The Planning Commission in its "Memo- upon itself the collecting of rent. It paid the randum on the Fourth Five-Year Plan," pub- landowners the rent after deducting an "admin- lished in October 1964, notes some of the istrative fee" of 5 percent. The practice came to points demanding action. In the words of the an end after the tenants acquired the land upon Commission they are as follows: a reasonable compensation fixed by the govern- ment. The moral of this is clear. With the inter- 1. replacement of temporary provisions for vention of the government, the rent evasions prevention of ejectment of tenants by com- were eliminated. The resistance of the owners prehensive legislation on security of tenure, was softened while the bargaining position of 2. restricting the right of resumption for per- the tenants was strengthened. Above all, the sonal cultivation, right of the tenant to remain on the land so long 3. removal of legal and administrative deficien- as he paid the rent became legitimized in prac- cies relating to registration of voluntary tice. Hence the suggestion of adopting the surrenders of tenancies, practice of rent collecting by the government 4. conferment of rights of ownership on ten- in other states. The revenue service might be ants of nonresumable land, and pressed into this additional job, or the task 5. commutation of rents in kind into cash may be entrusted to a new organization to ad- rents, minister the reforms. To this list a number of items should be There are many tenants willing to buy what added, and item (2) should be drastically re- is left of the nonresumable land or any other vised. It is well known that absentee owners land that might be available for sale for the (along with resident owners) and owners benefit of the tenants. Compensation and what whose principal occupation is not agriculture form it is to assume enter the picture very im- have evicted many tenants. They do not culti- portantly. We have stated repeatedly why few, vate the land themselves but resort to con- if any, tenants can pay for the land at once (in cealed tenancy arrangements. All such land cash) even if its price is fixed by the govern- should be acquired by the government at a ment or why they cannot meet yearly install- fixed price and placed at the disposal of a state ments if payments are too closely spaced or the land board for resale to the tillers. If a tenant land is too highly priced. We have also indi- declines to buy the land, the land board may cated and so have the members of agrarian re- lease it to the tenant at a controlled rent fixed form division of the Planning Commission by the state. At the same time, tenants on such that, unless the landlord is effectively com- lands should be given full occupancy and pelled to sell the land subject to purchase, heritable rights. progress will be halting at best. Experience Policing of tenancy arrangements has not demonstrates that this issue cannot be resolved proved effective either in regard to security of through voluntary compliance. To this end, tenure or controlled rents. In view of the so- it iS recommended that the state governments cial conditions prevailing in the countryside, buy the land directly from the landowners for it is doubtful whether even a perfectly framed resale to the tenants. Many of the landlord- law can be enforced; it is recommended, there- tenant behind-the-scene involvements, which fore, that the state governments should inter- so often prevent a land transaction, would be pose between the tenant and landowner, be the eliminated if the government intervened in so latter absentee or resident. The law should be clear cut a fashion, thereby providing the ten- so framed that the tenant pays the controlled ant with a much-needed protective shield. This rent to the government and the latter reim- is the reason why the Japanese and Taiwanese burses the landowner accordingly. There is a governments placed the entire land purchase workable precedent for this approach in the scheme on this basis. former state of Trivandrum, now part of If the government adopts this recommenda- Kerala. In order to allay in a certain part of tion, how will it pay for such purchases? We the state the rising disputes between the jennis may recall that, more than a decade after the Agrarian Reform in India 397 zamindari abolition, the government still owed transfer of shares in payment for purchased the former intermediaries not quite two-thirds land. In relation to India as against the familiar, of the agreed-upon purchase value of the land to us case of Taiwan, we cannot venture out- (footnote 21). For reasons explained in the side the general character of the idea. It is zamindari abolition section of this paper, the in such terms that we aired it before an im- same treatment cannot be applied to the land- portant official of the Planning Commission. lords considered here; they are not British It did not seem forbidding to him and, in fact, created, but the "more equal," indigenous he could see its application in other fields, brand who must be dealt with with greater while preserving government control over the circumspection. Whatever the price agreed public sector. Nothing said here can be inter- upon, the state governments will not find it preted to mean acceptance of the idea. The easy to pay promptly and in fairly large sums. wide and complex ramifications of the recom- They could, of course, dip into the chronically mendation are recognized and so is the need depleted state treasure boxes or resort to the for a thorough study and analysis of a mass of usual payments in long-maturing, low-interest- pertinent information before judgment is bearing bonds. We believe that this will not rendered. Only the Planning Commission can suffice and that the problem can be eased by initiate the appropriate examination along tapping a financial resource hitherto untouched. those lines and determine what the public We recommend for the consideration of the sector could do to further the cause of this Planning Commission the exchange of stocks of aspect of the reform program. government-owned enterprises in part-payment The foundation upon which all other recom- for land purchased under the reform. At first mendations must rest is the preparation of a glance and in conditions where the government basic record of tenancies. Its importance can- has never practiced such a scheme and owners not be overestimated. In many states tenancies have never handled a share of stock, this idea are on an oral basis, and a tenant cannot assert may seem farfetched. Yet, Taiwan offers a suc- security of tenure rights unless they are re- cessful precedent. There, the national govern- corded. Without a written record any and all mient decided to part with some of its public provisions relating to security of tenure cannot sector industries (cement, paper and pulp, he enforced. In the Uttar Pradesh a few million agricultural and forestry development, and in- records were corrected or newly inscribed in dustrial mining corporations) to cover 30 per- the course of a special drive organized by the cent of the land value purchased by the govern- state government in connection with the im- ment from landlords for resale to the tenants. plementation of the Zamindari Abolition and The properties were evaluated, stock issued, Land Reform Act. The same cannot be said of and a requisite amount of stock transferred a sizable part of the country, particularly of and accepted by the landowners. The two Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Madras, cardinal points of the scheme are that the stock Mysore, and Orissa.52 Evidently the Uttar is not overpriced and that the selected indus- Pradesh method, largely based on the deter- tries are well-managed and profitable. In Tai- mined leadership of Charlan Singh, the then wan the stocks were possibly overpriced, but revenue minister, was not or could not be the industries proved to be extremely profit- duplicated in many other states. In order to able; and those who held on to the shares have overcome this difficulty, we suggest the follow- reaped a return beyond their expectations. It ing. The patwari' cannot carry out so impor- is not without interest that in Taiwan the tant a task, and here is where the participation sellers of land under the reform were much of tenants comes into the picture. A committee smaller holders than those of India and knew should be set up in every village made up of no more about stocks than their Indian counter- two tenants, one part owner-part tenant, one parts. owner cultivator, and one landlord to help the Our information about India's large public sector is minimal, but we know that it contains 52. "Progress of Land Reform," p. 180. a profitable segment of industries and suggest 53. A patwari is the hereditary village official that the latter might provide a basis for the who keeps the land records and the revenue rolls. 398 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 patwari and other revenue officials to prepare of open tenancy is highly debatable despite the the record of rights. This suggestion is based census data. More or less tenanted acres or on two practical considerations. What the offi- more or fewer tenants are not academic ques- cials don't know or pretend not to know about tions: they have serious bearing on agrarian "who is who" in the village, the three first- policy. It is one thing for officials of a well- mentioned members of the committee do know. known state to claim that tenancy is almost The other important consideration is to give nonexistent any longer; it is another matter to the tenants the reality of participation in the find that it is there all the same but in a dif- implementation of the land reform program. ferent and worse guise. Deeply involved in every aspect of agrarian "Underground" tenancy is a post-reform reform is the agrarian reform division of the phenomenon and rising fast. There is ample Planning Commission. The one suggestion we reason for studying it and drawing the neces- offer in this regard is the urgent need to en- sary policy conclusions. Studies of the effects large its staff in order to expand the scope of of tenancy as they relate to landlord, tenant, its work. The division is the only one of its and land have been made, but they are far kind in the center, for neither the Ministry of from common and are not particularly up-to- Food and Agriculture nor the Ministry of Con- date as one might wish. Besides, often the sub- munity Development and Cooperation engages ject enters by indirection, as it were, the in any agrarian reform work. In size, the staff, emphasis being placed on other aspects of farm including the director, is not a dozen strong. management. The economic and social conse- Yet it is called upon to perform a great variety quences of the reforms implemented and un- of services ranging from the formulation of implemented are still practically a virgin field; major policies to rushing all over the country it could stand a good deal of deep plowing and "putting out fires." From our personal observa- much light would be shed on these issues. The tions, the division is more than overburdened land reform laws are on the statute books of trying to keep up with a whole array of diffi- every state, and there is nothing in those laws cult and essential chores connected, especially and their amendments with which at least two in recent years, with the implementation of individuals of the agrarian reform divisions the programs, their evaluation, and the con- are not thoroughly conversant. At the same tinuous prodding of the states into more vigor- time, a codification and interpretation of the ous action. The surprising thing is that so few reform laws would be of great value for all have done so much and so well in difficult concerned with the reform movement in India. circumstances. The "anti-reform reform legislation" of some While all this is true, it is just as true that states is pregnant with touchy and crucial ques- the division should probe a good deal more tions on why reforms in certain states have into basic problems if it is to fulfill its unique gone wrong. There is much else in this area position as the watchdog of Indian agrarian of problems that the division could explore on reforms. We have in mind the need for basic a continuous basis. And there might be also information and analysis that might be of the possibility of enhancing its advisory serv- great assistance to the policymnaker, adminis- ices to the states in an effort to improve the trator, and the student alike. Much is known legislation enactments. A well-staffed special in a general way; much is unknown in a spe- unit, branch, or bureau of the agrarian reform cific way. division could and should address itself to To cite a few examples, eviction of tenants issues mentioned and unmentioned as befits following the application of the reforms is a the clearing house of reform ideas, policies, common phenomenon, but how many, even if and basic information. not to the last decimal, remains to be deter- mined. Co-joined with this is what happens to Adiinistrative reform them after eviction. Some tenants have acquired land under the reforms, but the answers to the The recent recommendations of the Plan- questions of how many, how much, and in ning Commission are well-taken; and it is which states are very inadequate. The extent tempting to echo the Planning Commission by Agrarian Reform in India 399 saying that they ought to be enforced, as in- of the revenue administration. The reform en- deed they ought to be. The same should apply tanglements have added no staff of any kind to all the recommendations grouped under the to assist him. Then comes the revenue in- heading "Suggestions for Action." But even the spector, covering from 20 to 40 villages, the best recommendations don't get carried out subdeputy collectors covering 100 villages, merely because one wishes them well. To reach presided over by the deputy collector and col- their objective they must first of all function lector in charge of an entire district. Only occa- within an effective administrative agrarian re- sionally does one find in the collector's office a form framework. Such a framework India does special officer for agrarian reform affairs. On not have. the state level there is the revenue minister, There is much poor content in the reform and in some states only is there a land reform legislation in India, but it can be corrected. commissioner assisted by a small staff. By a The technical problems of administering a pro- most generous estimate one might add up grain are not insurmountable, and India offers 6,000 to 7,000 people not connected with the examples of resolving such difficulties. But revenue offices, directly involved in reform these are encouraging exceptions which should administration. But fundamentally agrarian re- not blind one to the fact that for all practical form is in the hands of the revenue depart- purposes India has no administrative mecha- ment and the patwaris. And what must be nism especially designed to implement its re- stressed here is not the lack of numerical forms. For reasons to be discussed in subse- strength of these administrators but their atti- quent paragraphs, India is doing it "on the tude toward reform. cheap," relying almost entirely on the existing The patwari is the only official crucial to revenue administration, the reform at the grass roots, but he is a The Planning Commission realizes the in- hindrance to rather than a promoter of reform adequacy of this instrument. It states rather enforcement. Personal observations in other frankly that "the collection of land revenue states amply support this comment on the and other miscellaneous tasks take so much patwari in Uttar Pradesh: "The enforcement time of the field staff (of the revenue adminis- of land law in particular faced the other im- tration) that they are not able to give ade- mnense difficulty, the character of the patwari quate attention to the maintenance of land or village record keeper."- According to a records and the administration of land reform classic description of this ancient village offi- programs." More specifically, in a number of cial, he is capable of any form of deceit, cor- states, "particularly Bihar, Orissa and West ruption, and malpractice._" Not all of them Bengal and over large areas of Rajasthan, there are cut of the same cloth, but the author's most was hardly any revenue agency below the dis- charitable comment is: "the methods of dis- trict or sub-divisional level. In some other honesty pursued by the various occupants of states, such as Assam and parts of Madhya this office differ as widely as their habits of Pradesh, the staff at the village level has been thought." With the passage of time his role inadequate to discharge the multifarious duties and attitude have not undergone a significant entrusted to it. Although steps have been change. Past and current assessments make taken, notably in Bihar, Orissa and West Ben- this clear. So much for the patwari, the village gal to build up agencies in the field, much still kingpin and supposed reform implementor. remains to be done."" There are other rea- The other two vital personages are the reve- sons that explain why the revenue administra- nue minister and the collector, for they set the tion is not the vehicle for reform administra- tone, particularly the minister, for the entire nion. revenue establishment. By and large and under- Consider the administrative structure from standably so, they look upon reform work as the bottom up. At the base stands the patwari, the hereditary village official who keeps the 55. Neale, Economic Changes in Rural India, land records and the revenue rolls and is part p. 201. 56. Sir Cecil Walsh, "Indian Village Crimes," 54. "Progress of Land Reforms," pp. 180, 182. pp. 149-51 (quoted by Neale). 400 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 an intrusion into their multifarious activities. of the zamindari abolition and only occasion- That traditionally these activities also involve ally in tenancy reforms, the attitude has been settlements of rent disputes doesn't detract one of great reluctance. from the statement. But more germane is the fact that more often than not these individuals, Congress party and the peasant by social caste, are not reform zealots. On the One can go on at still greater length pointing basis of field observations, the same may be out weaknesses and laying down "should be said of their principal subordinates. The posi- dones" to eliminate them. Instead, we shall tion taken by many states in view of the re- rather repeat the one all-embracing soft spot forms serves to compound this negativism. just mentioned: the lack of sufficient wvill to In fairness, not all parwaris are devoid of grapple with the problem by those who legis- all rectitude and not all revenue officers are late and those who are charged with the duty "negative." After all, the zamindari abolition to implement reforms. And it is the former is a fact and so is the implementation of some rather than the latter with whom the responsi- of the other new tenancy provisions, spotty bility lies. There is yet another group of people though it is. The overriding consideration is upon whom the primary responsibility de- that neither the patwaris nor the revenue es- volves. In fact, it predates, if one may put it tablishment are instruments for administering that way, enactment of legislation and the so gigantic an enterprise quite alien to their means of enforcement. This group, too, can thinking and way of life. We suggest that a affect profoundly both the character of the land reform administration in every state, ap- legislation and enforcement. We speak of the propriately staffed by people solely devoting Congress Party. their efforts to the reform work, is a prime Not too many years ago it was the leader- need. It will be indicated elsewhere that this ship of the Congress Party that had the vision, is envisaged as only part of the administrative social conscience, and dedication to pioneer scheme; but for the moment let it be stressed the reforms. This fact was of singular impor- that even this bare minimum doesn't exist. This tance, for it is political leadership which makes is the more incongruous when we note that, or unmakes reforms. It is political leadership numerically speaking, community development which provides the impetus or lack of impetus has 67,000 village level workers as against which decides between reform and "reform." hardly 6,000 workers devoting all their time There is no gainsaying the fact that the eco- to agrarian reform work only. nomic environment, population pressure on the This contrast is the more striking when we land, and customary relationships sanctioned take a leaf out of the Japanese experience. by a long history of social and religious tradi- There, the total amount of land transferred tions exert great influence on what happens to from landlord to tenant was no more than legislation designed to change old institutional 5 to 6 million acres. Yet the enforcement of molds. But this does not invalidate the main the program called for nearly 120,000 mem- premise-that the content and implementation bers of village land commissions rmade tip of of agrarian reform are a reflection of a par- tenants, owner cultivators, and landlords as ticular political balance of forces in a country. well as upward of 400,000 village volunteers India, of course, is no exception to this; and and many thousands of officials and clerks on it is India's political leaders who at one time national, prefectural, and village levels. And strove with might and main to give birth to this is a country with no patwaris to doctor the agrarian reform idea-zamindari and non- records and no opposition worth mentioning. zamindari. The party was then the authentic The moral of it all is: If India is to proceed "agrarian reformer." Without going into the with so much that has been left undone, it is reasons why, it must be recorded that the all- indeed time to create an administrative struc- important role has been gradually diluted to a ture for that very purpose. There is a second point of nonrecognition. It is not in evidence moral in the Japanese story: There was the even at ceremonial party gatherings when pro will in Japan to carry out the enabling legisla- forma tributes are also paid to outworn party tion, whereas in India and with the exception slogans. And yet, the party's active allegiance Agrarian Reform in India 401 to the reform idea is more important now when it carefully shunned the reform problem for early idealism has given way to the painful reasons best known only to itself. Nor has realities of attempted changes in the old rural there been in recent years any nongovern- order. More concretely, unless the political mental group, in or out of the village, that felt leaders assume that role once again, the chances deeply enough about the reform cause to carry of improving the legislative content of the re- the message into countryside. This being the forms and of implementing them are very poor case, it would be appropriate for the Congress indeed. By itself, even the best administrative Party leadership, which once spark plugged machine cannot meet the task assigned to it. the agrarian reform movement in India, to It is understandable why in a review of the re-assert its interest in the welfare of its own Alliance for Progress, the writer, noting its offspring. slow development, wrote in this wise: The renewed and active interest can assume a number of forms, reaching out, in the first The execution of agrarian reform, rural instance, to the state legislatures and long over- community development and an adequately due "tidying up" of enactments. More impor- financed and staffed national education pro- tant than that is the task of forging the missing gram depend ultimately on political lead- link-the participation of the tenants in the ers . . . and not on experts . . . what the reform process. This means organizing them Alliance for Progress needs to be a success by the Congress Party-if need be into "farm in these countries is only the commitment of lobbies"-so that they may play an active role the political leadership to back up the ex- in all matters relating to agricultural develop- perts.5" ment, including, of course, agrarian reform Another serious problem related to the one matters. Reforms in Japan and Taiwan demon- just mentioned is that the people in whose be- strated that adding this party to the "bargaining half the reforms were designed have never table" is the essence of a meaningful reform. been, as was noted above, a party to the process Since the initiation of such a movement cannot of reform formulation and enforcement. They come from the tenants themselves, it must are objects of the reforms, but never means of come from the centers of power just men- helping formulate and carry them out. Whether tioned. This would not constitute an altogether consciously or unconsciously, the Congress novel experience for the party. The "kisan" Party had never reviewed this distinction with (peasant) movement in the zamindari areas the consideration it deserves. The reliance is in the late nineteenth century was guided by upon a reluctant, numerically small bureaucracy the very people who later on spawned the Con- to do the job. Reluctant officials and timid gress Party. The latter displayed its great farmers are not a good combination to advance organizational talent in the struggle for inde- the cause of reform. Besides, the exceptions pendence, in ushering it in during the early notwithstanding, no bureaucracy, however com- perilous years, and in settling down to the tasks petent and devoted, as exemplified by the of running a new state. It has lacked no talent Japanese and Taiwanese cases, can carry out in soliciting the peasant vote since indepen- the task without the assistance of the top dence, and it should lack no talent to organize policymakers and of the peasantry. To illus- the farmers so that they may articulate and trate but one point: Even though many Indian actively advocate their interests. Admittedly, villages have records of rights full of holes, this may not be easy and will take time. The the villagers know who is who, who owns what cake of custom is hard to crack, and values and land, who rents from whom and at what rate, attitudes do not change overnight. But they are and much else. When nudged in that direction, not forever. The Communist leadership in their role is indispensable. There was a time Hyderabad in 1948 and the same leadership in when community development might have Madras witnessed by this observer in 1952 played the role of a catalyst in this regard, but demonstrate that the peasants respond to those who assume the role of their leaders and pro- 57. Juan de Onis, New York Times (December tectors and act upon it. Under such conditions 15, 1964). customary predilections, when pitted against 402 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 known self-interest, do change even in the form in the countryside take heart and make Indian village. It is the Congress Party's op- their contribution to an effective enforcement portunity to speed up that change. of what is now known as agrarian reform in A move in this direction is a political act, India? Would not a good purpose be served if but the entire reform movement in India is the Congress Party convened and examined not without political considerations, heavily the course of the reform movement since inde- weighted to be sure in favor of the landowners. pendence? It is possible that a deliberation of The union government through the Planning this kind might provide much of the needed Commission has repeatedly pressed the state stimulus to push agrarian reform in India off governments to get on with their responsibili- dead center. ties. The pressure, however, has fallen short of its mark. The state governments depend upon the union government for nearly 75 percent of Pro-reform and other considerations their developmental funds, but have the purse The current food difficulties provide a propi- strings been used as a "handle" for extracting tious occasion to link them with the reform agrarian reform concessions from some of the problem. Greater agricultural productivity and recalcitrant state governments? The same po- better tenurial arrangements go hand in hand. litical party dominates the center and the states. The discussion of security of tenure, if nothing If the latter continue in their refusal to accept else, points that way. If one is serious about the and act on the center's important policy deci- first, one must be just as serious about the sec- sions, might it not then be advisable to bring ond. The argument, recently restated by a top into play the financial resources of the central official in Punjab, that it is best to leave things government? It is recognized that stronger as they are so as not to disturb the status quo political pressure might provoke political dis- is neither good argument nor good advice. sensions within the Congress Party as well as There is nothing in the agrarian reforms of give rise to overt discontent in the countryside India as envisaged in this paper that infringes on the part of the reform opponents. But the on big landed properties. Most of them are alternative to refocusing on the land problem is already broken up, worked by tenants, farm- putting the reform issues, at least in certain hands, or tenants turned farmhands by the very states, into a deep freeze to retard agricultural laws which were supposed to prevent much of production on 70 or 85 million acres of land that. What is at issue is the injection of a touch and eventually to risk political tensions the of dynamism into the use of land by giving the country could well do without, cultivators the incentives that go with security There was a time when, under the care of of tenure and reasonable rents as well as such the Congress Party, agrarian reform was a modest purchases of land to which the tenants national issue, in the sense that the principles are entitled under the law. And if, we repeat, of tenurial reforms had been accepted as one there are state governments not prepared to of its major guiding policy principles. To be grant these reasonable conditions, at the same against reform was akin to being against inde- time laying aside questions of social justice and pendence, for it had been for some years past equity, then it is up to the centers of power to part of one grand design of the country's de- step into the breach and provide an effective velopment. Is it too late to infuse the party stimulus for the fashioning of the ameliorative with the old, original meaning, when the wel- measures long overdue. fare of India's submerged was one of its arti- There is another reason why it is not best cles of faith? If the voluminous legislative to leave things alone, as they are, but instead to enactments of some of the states give birth to finish the job expeditiously, salvaging what reform measures of questionable value, must can be salvaged of the original reform goals. not then the leadership of the Congress Party To date, the landowners have done well, while somehow assert itself publicly, reaching out the tenantry has not done well. But it would be into every nook and corner of those states, correct to say that even the landlord group is carrying the message of people's rights in the not in too happy a frame of mind-their suc- land? Would not then the proponents of re- cessful evasions notwithstanding. The preoccu- Agrarian Reform in India 403 pation with agrarian reform is bound to con- stated, no such drastic changes in the agrarian tinue; there is too much at stake for too many structure of India will take place in the fore- for it to die a natural death. It can't fade away. seeable future. One must settle, therefore, for Deficient though some of the laws are and the proverbial "bird in the hand" for the mini- obstructed though their execution is, their very mum that can be realized as against the maxi- existence is a promise to the tenant and a mum which cannot be now attained. Anything threat to the landlord. Even though the cards that eases the immediate burden of the tenants are still stacked in favor of the landowners, is an opening wedge of twofold significance: it has been this observer's experience that It contributes to the unlimbering of a large surely some of them are not of an easy mind- part of the agricultural economy and, by the not about the plight of the tenants but about same token, tends to weaken the village setup their own future. They know that this is not which smothers initiative in all manner of the last round in their tug of war with the ways. It assumes, of course, that technical and tenants. Some of the provisions most damag- financial assistance will be there to underwrite ing to them (ceilings, occupancy rights, se- the new psychological and other incentives. curity of tenure, reduced rents, and so forth) Admittedly, past experience has taught that are still on the statute books and someday the realization of even the minimum program someone may venture to apply them. If the presents enormous difficulties, especially in sense of uneasiness is to be allayed on the part India. These stand repeating for their content of the owners and the sense of despair on the and for reasons given in the next paragraph. part of the tenants, what better remedy than Among the difficulties are the sheer enormity the enforcement of the minimum program of the task of giving security to millions of rather than prolongation of the state of uncer- tenants on millions of acres of tenanted land; tainty with all its debilitating effects? the correction of some of the mischief already committed; administrative decentralization, Minimum progran and mnaximu- application with each state a law unto itself; the fact that The stress here is on amelioration rather than an estimated third of the tenanted land belongs on final solutions, for the minimum program to owners with 5 acres or less; that a quarter can do no more. This is not to denigrate the of the farm population has hardly any stake in beneficence of such measures effectively carried the land at all; the fierce competition for any out. It is well to remember that the objects of tillable plot of land on almost any terms; the the ameliorative reforms are small, hand-to- prevailing lack of peasant initiative and the mouth farmers with whom every bit counts. failure to stimulate it; and the millions of The point can be illustrated simply. At its most people added annually to the already over- rockbottom level-the food level-more or crowded land. This is enough even for some less rent may mean the difference between two stouthearted, let alone the fainthearted, to seek meals a day or one meal, a full rice bowl or a refuge in "all hope abandon." half-empty one. It is that basic. And it may These difficulties are restated not only for mean more, too-just as it can also mean less. what they are-and surely not to weaken one's It is one thing to be secure in one's tenancy resolve-but rather to call the attention of the rights; it is altogether a different matter to be Congress Party and of the central government at the bottom of the heap as a landless laborer. that, if they are to take a more searching look It is one thing to be a tenant; it is another at these problems and to redeem at least part thing to be an owner or nonresumable land. of the pledge to the tenants, it would take all Granting these most significant distinctions, it instruments of government-due process of law is understood that the measure that lies closer and, when necessary, unceremonious vigor- to a "solution" is the widespread ownership to deal with them. Above all, it will take effec- of the land by those who cultivate it. This has tively organized will, without which much else been the guiding principle of the reforms in will be written in water. Assuming that this countries of Asia, in the current reform de- will be the approach, they ought to bring into velopments in Iran and in Latin America, and the open, through all possible media, that anti- of course in India. But for the many reasons reform sentiments are thwarting the expecta- 404 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 tions aroused by the promised reforms nearly to accept the unacceptable, namely, that tens two decades ago. That this is so is an open of millions of acres of land will not produce secret, but it would be useful if they aired what they are capable of producing and that them from the housetops. They should proceed for millions of cultivators' lives, in Kipling's with the creation of an administrative organiza- words, it will continue to be "a long-drawn' tion encompassing all aspects of the agrarian question between a crop and a crop." All this reform programs. They should make the and much else unspoken but implied fall into strongest possible bid "to place the peasant," the oversentimentalized and dubious village as the late Prime Minister Nehru put it, "in maxim of "let all things old abide." Not every- the center of the piece." This is one of the main thing that is old in Indian villages is worth roads to progress, certainly until the day when preserving; surely not at a time when the coun- an awakened peasantry becomes a source of au- try must mobilize every resource-including thority and a mainspring of change. the agrarian reform resource-if it is to The Planning Commission is an arm of the grapple successfully with a host of seemingly union government. As such, it has not failed to intractable problems. The agrarian reform is an try to advance the reforms in the desirable di- important part of that resource that must be rection. But the commission does not pass laws; used to its full capacity. Its implementation and only the states have that right, and the com- completion should be one of the orders of the mission is not in a position to honor the prom- day. issory reform notes issued to the tenantry by Ceilings aside, India provides examples the Congress Party before and upon inde- which demonstrate that some aspects of the pendence. It is for the party which embodies program can be dealt with. The flaw is that so both union and state government to come to much of the fulfillment is a partial success the aid of the Planning Commission by match- only, the path being strewn with many failures. ing words with deeds. What is at stake is much The pervasiveness and stubbornness of the rea- more than security of tenure, reasonable rents, sons that lie behind them are not minimized, and a measure of land ownership-these, of but we are of the opinion that, given the under- course, but also much else that might generate pinnings already discussed in addition to the correctives to social instability and low agri- indispensable ingredient of ivill from the top, cultural productivity. It is recognized that the the unfinished agrarian reform business of the very attempts of this kind might usher in a possible can be managed even in the excruci- disturbing shaking-up and waking-up process. atingly difficult Indian conditions. This presup- But the risk is worth taking, for the Indian poses no further delay. The long drawer has village as presently constituted cannot play been in use too long and with lamentable re- anything like the full role in developing its suIts. Some are apparent to the naked eye, not inconsiderable and still undeveloped re- while others, the less apparent, are possibly sources-even with the help of better and more more dangerous in their political consequences physical inputs. In the long run the "unsettle- for the future. Taken together, they spell out a ment" might prove to be part of India's "silent" slower tempo of rural development, diminish- revolution, heralded with so much fanfare and ing at the same time the tempo of social so much hope in early days of community de- change. We agree, therefore, with M. R. Bhide, velopment but which died aborning en route vice governor of the Reserve Bank of India, from anticipations to realizations. that "the (reform) problem is both serious and immediate and unless it is handled firmly Closing remarks and promptly it may well be taken off our It may be presumptuous even for an interested hands by persons who are more radical in their outsider to treat this subject at such length and thinking and more ruthless in implementing in such terms. If any excuse need be offered, their plans."58 It is the business of the govern- it is this: It is not trite to say that the grave ment of India that that day never comes. difficulties raised by the reform issues are a challenge to great efforts; failure to bring them 58. From Wolf Ladejinsky's "Tenurial Condi- to the fore in order to do what can he done is tions and the Package Program." The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 405 49. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors With the advent of the Green Revolution -not yet so termed in this June 1968 paper-- Ladejinsky noted the emergence of a "disquieting" emphasis in India on "everything for production," on "biology rather than sociology." Ladejinsky here argues that "leaving out sociology means neglecting such nonmarginal issues as the inadequacies of the agrarian reforms and their adverse economic and social effects, the poor performance of the extension service, the questionable developmental and other activities of the village councils . . . the declining administrative standards, the inadequate performance of the cooperative societies . and, finally, the question of subsistence agriculture." These institutional constraints, if uncorrected, would confine the benefits of the new technology to some 10 to 20 percent of the farmers, rather than extending them to most. Because the argument in this paper recapitulates and updates in less space much of the ground covered in other articles (CB-97, 98, and 99), 1 have elected to present this one. Introduction of "sociology." If by sociology is meant what the armchair social scientist normally pursues, ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING impressions of there would be no quarrel with the statement. talks with state officials, offcials in Delhi, and The difficulty is that in this instance leaving with Westerners involved in the agricultural out sociology means neglecting such nonmar- development of India is that everything must ginal issues as the inadequacies of the agrarian center on agricultural production. This is in- reforms and their adverse economic and social deed an encouraging sign of the new times, effects, the poor performance of the extension generated by the 1967-68 sharp rise in farm service, the questionable developmental and output, attributed in part to the new tech- other activities of the village councils-the nology. Needless to say, the writer of this note panchayats, the declining administrative stan- shares in the hope that at long last an agricul- dards, the inadequate performance of the co- tural breakthrough is on the horizon. At the operative societies (despite their growing role same time, "everything for production" has as credit providers and as important marketing some disquieting features about it-it leaves agents in a few states), and finally the ques- out much that should be part of agricultural tion of subsistence agriculture. policy. A seasoned Western agriculturist The improvements in the work of some of summed up the new creed of inputs as the "do the enumerated and neglected parts of the all" when he stated that what Indian agricul- agrarian structure do not involve a choice ture needs at the moment is "biology rather either of concentrating scarce material re- than sociology." sources or spreading them thinly; what is pri- This is a pregnant statement which, cor- marily at issue is the better use of political and rectly interpreted, stands for the efficacy of administrative leadership in order to raise agricultural research, massive and coordinated; available human resources to higher levels of distribution of inputs concentrated on areas of productivity. Not to grapple with them is to assured water supply; and, of course, incentive give one pause about the future progress and prices. The fly in the ointment is the neglect stability of Indian agriculture. It is quite pos- 406 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 sible that for a time the disregard of "soci- of Bihar the new irrigation facilities are turn- ology" will not impede the rise of farm output. ing dry land into gold. But in the same Kosi This happened in Mexico and it may repeat district 50,000 to 60,000 cases have been itself in India. Favored with good monsoons in wandering from court to court for nearly a addition to a sustained new technology, there decade, all of them concerned with the rights of is no reason why India, like Mexico, should not tenants to the land occupied by them for many become self-sufficient in food-and possibly an years past. Officials make light of the rising exporter of rice-in the next few years. The tension and occasional "subversive" actions on 10 to 20 percent of farmers around whom the the ground that this, as much else in Bihar new agricultural strategy centers could accom- calling for correction, must not interfere with plish that task. But it is just as possible that agricultural production, as if its steady progress in the longer run India will also reap a harvest were only a biological function. The same is of ever greater polarization between the rich true with variations in sleepy and backward and the poor farmers and with it social and Orissa and elsewhere. The general impression economic discontent that might gravely affect is as if the urge for high productivity were the fragile body politic of the country. It would antithetical to all the other issues raised. If be foolhardy to assume that rural India is im- this is correct, the new farm strategy based on mune, as some contend, to the disruptive pres- material inputs only may fall short of its po- sures of poverty of the many amidst prosperity tential. of the relatively few. It is axiomatic that, with the availability of The problems mentioned previously are of irrigation facilities plus credit, fertilizer, better long standing, but they have been allowed to seed, and insecticides, productivity is bound come under eclipse to a much greater degree to rise sharply from its present low levels. This than in the past. The plausible pretext now is on top of well-functioning agrarian institu- that nothing must stand in the way of the tions would maintain farm productivity at high current attempts to attain higher rates of pro- levels. But extension, cooperatives, agrarian re- duction, though they all bear on the same out- forms, panchayats, and administrative arrange- come. One's field experience in this regard can nents do not function well, and some not well be disconcerting. at all. To the extent that they are as they are In the publicized showcase which is Tanjore and the new farm strategy accepts them pretty district of Madras state, officials are ever ready much as the norm, the strategy contains some- with figures, colored charts, and graphs on thing in the nature of a built-in barrier to the some aspects of agricultural production but full utilization of productive capacity. This will take no interest in the rather troublesome become evident at later and more sophisticated socioeconomic conditions of the village, which stages of agricultural development, a point an interested observer can easily detect. And touched upon in subsequent paragraphs. so it is in Andhra Pradesh. There, a most senior Another aspect of the same problem applies official is being very patriotic when he speaks with much greater force to the largest group with pride of his five tractors on his broad of farmers with small holdings. They, unlike acres and of his "philanthropy" when he leases the relatively small group of big farm oper- an acre or two to a tenant, while in his west ators, are not direct beneficiaries of the new Godavari district, another showcase, tenants strategy. Instead of easing their lot through are dismissed in droves and turned into land- augmented productivity, the performance of less laborers in open contravention of the ex- extension, cooperatives, and so on often acts isting tenure provisions. In the same state, an upon them as depressants. In conjunction with official in a moment of truth urged this ob- the small size of their holdings, meager re- server not to waste time on official cooperative sources, and lowly social position, the outcome reports, while confiding to him that if he were often is as if rights, privileges, and opportuni- "king" he would disestablish most of the 15,000 ties are not meant for them. But it is important cooperatives, so badly do they work. Yet the to note that from the point of view of produc- issue is covered over with a wet blanket so far rivity there is ample evidence that they could- as official action is concerned. In Kosi district and some do-equal and exceed yields on large The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 407 holdings.' The transformation from traditional agricultural performance. It is enough to say to modern technology on small farms is indeed that in India sixty million families engage in possible but on the condition that resource farming and the problem is how to induce assistance, material and human, is measurably them to produce more by weaning them away increased to fit basic innovation requirements. from those traditional practices which have Failing that, the majority of them are doomed outlived their usefulness. This is where exten- to subsistence farming, while the technological sion is supposed to come in by demonstrating revolution is likely to grow apace on the well- convincingly how to apply the innovations of endowed and amply financed farms of the large agricultural science and technology. The official owners. If, therefore, the small farmers are to point of view is that, whatever the difficulties make their contribution to productivity, it is of the recent past, extension is on its way. In not too soon to bring into the open once again the words of the extension commissioner of the the small farm issue, why this class of farmers Ministry of Food and Agriculture, receives very limited assistance, and to con- The performance of the Intensive Agricul- sider anew ways and means of how to shift an tural District Programme (IADP) . . . has increasing number of them to a more produc- adequately demonstrated the effectiveness of tive base. In sum, since in the new strategy adetel ns rat ed h is f there is little room for them, might not meas- ourpexten woe proidedahe seful ure betakn, artculrl wt repc tO supported by a strong administrative set-up, ures be taken, particularly with respect to receives adequate technical guidance and credit for inputs, designed so that they too assistance from the higher level subject- share in the country's agricultural progress, now matter specialists and is able to assure so largely geared to the affluent farmers? Ever prolemnote abve i pat ofthe farmers adequate and timely supply of in- Every problem noted above is part of the puts. All these facilities were available in "institutional" aspect of the agricultural econ- p a omy. They are all subjects for detailed studies, the IADP districts. The results achieved in but this is not contemplated here; the Bell these areas were extremely encouraging. report2 did that to a very considerable degree This, the argument runs, has led to higher four years ago. What is intended rather is to yields, encouraged the government to create take account of the more recent developments. the Intensive Agricultural Areas Program in There will be occasional references to the re- 260 districts, and the expansion "has unmis- port as background, but what follows is partly takably demonstrated the effectiveness of our based on field observations and partly on perti- extension agency."a nent recent material. The village level worker and Extension Service extension as practiced Official view Yields have indeed risen in 1967-68 and so It is nor necessary to extoll here the imor- has the utilization of new inputs, but the view that the extension service is effective in present circumstances is highly questionable. It is ques- 1. "Results of studies made by Farm Management .ionable even in 1ADP districts amply supported Research Centers in India, analysed recently by by the Ford Foundation, let alone in the dis- Khusro (1964), Krishna (1961) and Long (1961) tricts not so generously financed by the govern- indicate that gross output per acre averages higher ment. It is our contention that in the past on small farms than on large privately operated agriculture benefited from extension, but its farms. Long concludes that gross output per acre agneidfrm xtso,buis was largest on small farms." From K. L. Bachman contribution was indirect and limited; the con- and R. P. Christensen's chapter on "the Economics tribution to the new agricultural strategy will of Farm Size," in Agricultural Development and Economic Growth, H. M. Southworth and B. F. Johnston, eds. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University 3. D. V. Reddy, "Problems of Agricultural Ex- Press, 1967), p. 246. tension and Farm Education," The Indian Journal of 2. The World Bank's intensive study of "India's Public Administration (July-September 1967), p. Economic Development Effort," October 1965. 583. 408 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 be minimal so long as the system continues in decidedly circumscribed. As in the past, he its present form. This conclusion rests pri- helps some farmers to prepare the so-called marily on the inadequate service of the village production plan to help them secure a loan level worker (VLW), the central figure of ex- from the local cooperative, expedites here and tension, and the great lacuna in agricultural there fertilizer distribution through a coopera- research, without which the vLw has little to tive credit line, and puts on a few farm demon- contribute. strations. As to his intended primary function There are two vi.w images-the theoretical as a purveyor of new agricultural techniques, one, the paragon of all virtues, and the second farmers' reactions varied from bemusement to one as he is in reality. To the propagandists of outright statements that the VLW has little to extension he is the "friend, philosopher, and teach them. Another reaction expressed by an guide" of the farmer; "he will go down in official was that the VLW is not serving the history as one of the greatest social inventions farmer or the farm community but serves of the present era," or, when imagination runs rather the Block Development Administration, riot, "his sense of duty and service pervades as if the two are not pursuing the same aims. the village in the same way as fragrance in a This is reminiscent of the conclusion reached flower." All of which implies that as a direct by one of the leading protagonists of com- link with the farmers the vtw provides them munity development, of which the extension with the kind of services they need. The reality service is the core. Said this writer, "They (the is something else again, for he is not at all VLW's) had largely become the errand boys of what he is painted to be by the image makers program administrators rather than catalyzers of community development. The vi.w is rela- and servants of village people and organized tively young, though many of them have been village groups." Why the extension agents are in service for a decade or so; he is not neces- "boys" and not "men," who enjoy for the most sarily of the village; he is in most cases a half- part little respect or confidence of the farmers, educated young man looking for any job; he is becomes evident even on a casual visit to the a functionary at the very bottom of the admin- countryside. istrative totem pole, working for Rs125 or more per month with little hope of climbing The VLW in Tanjore the bureaucratic ladder and supposedly taking care of an area of about 5,000 acres cultivated A talk with a VLW in Tanjore is worth record- by 1,000 to 1,200 farmers; above all, his train- ing. Tanjore is selected because it is the best ing and activities are of a multipurpose char- known, best financed, best staffed, and sup- acter, a "Mr. Fix It" of sorts, with little knowl- posedly with some of the best claims to being edge to impart to the farmer or authority born a successful JADP district. In the presence of a of knowledge to impress him with. There are, group of farmers, a VLW was describing his of course, exceptions, but the reference is to various tasks and telling something about him- the majority of the VLW's who number some self. He was 29 years old with nine years 70,000. About five years ago an official report service in a number of blocks of the district. He dealing, among other things, with the role of commenced his service at Rs90 a month as base the VLW's noted that ". . . at present very few pay and presently earns Rs125 plus Rs90 as cultivators seek his advice regarding the adop- dearness allowance. The increase is due to a tion of improved practices." The situation is yearly increment of Rs5 in the past seven years. worse now, notwithstanding the numerous His prospects for advancement are extremely recommendations to improve the extension limited. After nearly a decade of service he service. hopes some day to become a panchayat exten- On recent trips to the countryside, one of sion officer, in which case his base pay would the questions pursued centered on the per- be Rsl40 to Rs210 plus certain allowances formance of the VLW. Summing up the im- about which he was not clear. He was ill at pressions of talks with farmers, officials, and ease in the presence of the farmers, and extension agents, it can be said that the work seemed worried over his job because, as he put of the VLW is not useless but its usefulness is it, "too much was expected of him." Indeed The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 409 too much. In describing the character of his the extension work of a VLW in the years past. tasks, he mentioned agriculture first, but as he He may have developed into a good bond kept on enumerating chore after chore, agri- salesman, but he is not a well-trained agricul- culture was not the dominant item in a long tural specialist. Even if he were, he would list of other activities. The list went as follows: falter under the weight of so much else. He is demonstrations not infrequently a garbage can into which a 1. agriculture, including field motley refuse of responsibility is dumped. One and veterinary work, . cannot but sympathize with him in his pre- 2. seed distribution and testing, dicament. Partly because of his own short- 3. inspection of farm practices, comings but mainly for reasons not of the 4. preparation of farm plans to secure crop VLW's making at all, he has been placed in an loans,g . . unenviable position. There is no denying that 5. receiving and passing on loan applications, the extension service makes an indirect contri- 6. collection of loans, bution to agriculture through a number of 7. school building inspection, tasks already mentioned, while some vi.w's do 8. enlistment of new cooperative members, it more directly. One may even go so far as to 9. family planning with a 1968 target of 750 say that extension had made a notable con- sterilizations, tribution passing out the word that new inputs 10. panchayat work, are good for agriculture, but it has proved 11. sales of government bonds, . woefully short on how to demonstrate their 12. receiving contributions for special affairs use to the farmers in a practical way. In the arranged by the local administration . final analysis, the latter makes the difference 13. maintaining of basic village records in- between a crop and a crop. It can be said there- corporated in thirteen registers of one kind fore that, by and large, the VLW is not a vital or another, and innovation agent; this is particularly true when 14. last but not least, written reports on his ac- it is no longer necessary to "sell" the farmer tivities to block headquarters. the idea that new inputs and productivity go How deeply he is involved in the enumer- together. ated tasks is not difficult to judge. Even if it is true, as he maintained, that he devotes one week to each of his five villages, it is doubtful Extension and new technology that he can expertly perform the multifarious Fortunately for Indian agriculture at this stage tasks with which he is entrusted. Agriculture of development, the importance of the exten- is not his main preoccupation; even if knowl- sion service has been exaggerated. How else is edgeable and not soldiering on the job, he has one to account for the unmistakable strides other duties to worry about. He was vague registered by the enterprising and some not- about his field demonstration work, noting that so-enterprising farmers? Simply stated, the the farmers know their jobs. Very much on his Ludhiana farmer of the Punjab and his counter- mind was his failure to fulfill the sterilization parts elsewhere have taken the bit in their target. At the close of the year, he had helped mouths and have run with it. A study on the induce 250 sterilizations against the target of adoption of hybrid maize seed provides sup- 750. He was bound to hear from higher up porting evidence. The authors note that: about this "failure," and it worried him. There was yet another aspect to his family planning Awareness for this innovation was more work recorded for our benefit by a local offi- due to the pioneering effort of some farmers cial. With sterilization goes an incentive pay- in Mandsaur town. There was hardly any ment of Rs30 to the man undergoing it. But lead given by the government agencies . . . his "net" is around Rsl5, the remainder going none of these farmers informed that they as "reward" to the "inducers," of whom the came to know about the hybrid maize from VLW is one. His concern about not attaining the village level worker although all the the target may be real. farmers knew him . . . The adoption of the What stands out is how little has changed in hybrid maize cultivation depended more on 410 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 the self-initiative of the farmers rather than willing the farmer may be to accept innova- the efforts of the extension agencies of the tions, an institutional structure composed of Government.4 well-trained technicians and administrators is critical to his judgment and final decisions and, This the farmers could do when the new of course, to the farmer's rate of return. In the agricultural strategy was barely rearing its head. view of one close student of Indian agriculture Now that it is beginning to come into its own, and problems of agricultural development in even the progressive farmers of India face the general, "two specific inputs are particularly problem of more efficient investment; in this likely to have high returns. One is research respect they have much to learn about the new the other is education, its priority arising from technology and much more as the technology past neglect and because it plays the key role grows in sophistication. For this reason, the in providing the trained manpower that is the very considerable expansion of utilization of critical complement of all the other critical inputs doesn't mean that they are currently complements of almost all the other input used as they should be, for the information forms discussed."6 about the relative efficiency of investment in Almost everyone conversant with extension different fields-irrigation, fertilizer use, new in India recognizes that it is outdated and pro- strains, pesticides, and so forth-is rather vides no answer to the new requirements. In meager. The farmer innovator is not sure what January of this year at a conference arranged to accept and what to reject among the alterna- by the University of Agricultural Sciences tives which constantly come to the fore as part (Bangalore), speaker after speaker underscored of a developing economy. The high-yielding this fact and for many reasons already cited. varieties involve more than the mere substitu- Even the commissioner of extension mentioned tion of one kind of seed for another. Their previously conceded on that occasion that the successful introduction will require changes in "inadequacy of ability and competence to guide nearly all components of Indian foodgrain pro- and assist farmers has been increasingly in evi- duction technology. More specifically, an Indian dence" among extension workers. The pro- writes notes the following on the biological liferation of a great many VLW training centers, complexity of attaining higher rates of output. social education training centers, orientation "The new strategy," he writes, and study centers, Panchayati Raj training e o. centers, extension education institutes, and the Relies on high yielding cereal strains. But National Institute on Community Develop- these are not miracle seeds which merely Nent-all these and more have fallen far short need to be sown in order to produce record crops. A great deal more is involved- of what agricultural progress demands. These micro-nutrients, moisture, conservation tech- . improvisations to accommodate niques, bacterial fertilizers, weedicides, plant interested farmers but chiefly to turn out hormones scientific cropping patterns and quickly a mass of new agents for the greatly constantly changing plant protection sched- expanded intensive agricultural development ules to suit variations in the physiological areas. Many, as noted earlier, are familiar with e . i p this state of affairs; they described it in detail, have been unstinting in their criticism, and This being so, Indian agriculture requires lavish in their recommendations on how to tested innovations and a variety of well- bridge aims and results so lacking in exten- operated servicing facilities. Regardless of how sion. Many of the recommendations are still valid-for example, that the VLW must be "100 4. Faculty for Management in Agriculture and percent agricultural"-but implementation has Cooperatives, Indian Institute of Management, not caught up with them. Planning and Implementation in Agriculture. Studies on High Yielding Varieties Programme, vol. 3, 6. John W. Mellor, "Toward a Theory of Agri- Hybrid Maize in Aadhya Pradesh (Ahmedabad: cultural Development," Agricultural Development 1967), pp. 44 and 51. and Economic Growth, H. M. Southworth and Bruce 5. Ashok Thapar, "Extension Services," The F. Johnston, eds. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Times of India (December 16, 1967). Press, 1967), p. 52. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 411 Can the extension service be reformed? kind of employment in preference to no em- In the face of this record, changes are difficult ployment at all. This implies fewer but better to efec If thy reto, che a ed, dit people, or the very opposite of the community to effect. If they were to be attempted, the deeomnIprah h urn rcieo lines of approach are well-known; their reali- dievelopment approach. The current practice of lin o ld proche well-kn n tire- Rs125 or more is not very much more than the zatonuming, w u theyouhto be c t a ate pay of the lowly "chowkidar." If additionally consuming, but they ought to be set forth at the VLW has little prospect for advancement, this point. Agricultural development entails the consequences are twofold: He has no in- "saturating" the farmer with both inputs and centive to perform and extension has no oppor- knowledge. As to the first point, in the atmos- tunity to tap better qualified personnel. Finally, phere of smugness and self-satisfaction about something would have to be done about the the first outcroppings of the agricultural revo- complicated lines of administrative command lution, it cannot be repeated often enough that which in themselves often inhibit the work of readily available fertilizer and so forth is not the best extension agents. enough. These inputs, by now conventional in This said, it must be borne in mind that many areas, have to be fed with a continuous the rehabilitation of the existing extension flow of knowledge which can come only from system is an excruciatingly difficult task. As the research input and extension as its trans- institutions go in India, extension is only a mission belt. But agricultural research in India fifteen-year-old stripling, hardly old enough to is in its infancy, and "India continues to lead suffer from the deadweight of a questionable the world with the lowest number of agricul- tradition. But it does. What the would-be re- rural research workers per 100,000 of the formers are faced with is an establishment of people active in agriculture. The current figure 70,000 agents; a vast network of hastily estab- is less than 3 compared with 6 in Pakistan, 60 lished educational institutions spread through- in Japan, 79 in Taiwan, and 133 in the Nether- out the country; formidable and complicated lands."' The policy that suggests itself is self- administrative relationships which permeate evident, and all that needs to be added is that the center, states, districts, blocks, and village the eight agricultural universities of India panchayats; and, finally, the not inconsiderable might follow in the footsteps of the Punjab and still potent ideological pretensions of com- University and the Agricultural University of munity development which fashioned this par- the U.P., which are now almost the sole centers ticular extension system and this particular of agricultural research and training among extension agent. Three years ago the Ministry the universities. of Community Development was disestablished The writer of these lines is reluctant to fall and incorporated into the Ministry of Food into the familiar trap of "should be dones," but and Agriculture. This was part of an attempt to there is no way of avoiding them and they are rid the Ministry of Community Development restated. If research workers are to play a use- and the extension service of some of its grosser ful role, they must remain in contact with aberrations. But so set has the institution be- extension personnel in order to know what is come in its ways that one cannot detect any happening in the field and above all to provide significant change in policies, administration, them with useful ideas to extend. This in turn or style of work. Admittedly, too, and not presupposes that the VLW is not a mere "errand merely as an afterthought, extension faces the boy peddling news about new research" but dilemma of quantity versus quality. The latter one with specialized knowledge, devoting him- is the touchstone of the progress of the new self solely to matters agricultural. Additionally, technology. If the numbers involved were the selected candidates, be they agricultural small, the resolution of this dilemma wouldn't college graduates or not, must be of a kind who be half so difficult; but how are 70,000 going do not look upon extension as a source of any to acquire quality and become agriculturally knowledgeable? 7. Ashok Thapar, "Pilots of Rural Change- The preceding may sound like an argument Agricultural Universities," Times of India (March for leaving things alone. Yet to do so is to 29, 1968). court trouble because important segments of 412 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Indian agriculture can no longer be sustained extension agent that: "This hope is not much by a service dealing, as one put it, in "yester- different from Lord Macaulay's hope that the day's problems and no more." For reasons al- middle class brought under the influence of ready stated, a break will have to be made in western education would transmit the fruits the very interests of farm productivity. Ad- of modern knowledge automatically to the? mittedly, this calls for a de-emphasis of the masses. Like the Englishman's hope, the hope widely accepted idea that fundamental changes pinned on the Village Level Workers is also in agricultural practices can be effected through likely to be belied.", ample supplies of inputs without bothering This judgment may be too severe, for it about the presence, absence, or quality of the demonstrates how little importance he attaches institutional "inputs." This is reflected in offi- to the future performance of the VLW's. The cial programmatic statements on the new strat- emphasis, therefore, is on farmer's training and egy, and it is due in good measure to the facile, of a kind that "will become meaningful if it aggressively optimistic assumption presently in is treated as an essential input (along with great vogue that the transition from a stagnant fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation) of pro- to a dynamic agriculture is practically at hand. grammes like those of the High-Yielding- The evidence is not yet that conclusive in a Varieties, Multiple Cropping (and) Intensive country with 330 million cultivated acres, only Cash Crops . . . The training programme should 15 million of which are officially estimated to be given the same priority by the organizers be under high-yielding varieties in 1968-69. of agricultural production as by the trainers It must be stressed at the risk of repetition and educators." All this is well and good and that the farmers, including the enterprising so are the suggestions that the training pro- ones, will have to learn a great deal more be- grams should aim at "quick and improved agri- fore lasting attainments are firmly in hand and cultural production" by acquiring proper skills, Indian agriculture becomes less dependent by creating a "connection between the supply upon the vagaries of the monsoon than it had of inputs and the imparting of training," by been in the past. A vastly increased responsi- establishing close communications between bility for the extension service is inevitable. farmers and "experts of a level higher than Whatever the impediments, therefore, it should the average extension worker," and finally by behoove the leaders of the new agricultural organizing small groups of farmers "affiliated strategy to promote an improved input of this to institutions where specialized and longer kind, just as they are trying to promote more training would be conducted."" and better irrigation; the production, import, Assuming the obvious need of farmer's and utilization of fertilizers; high-yielding training and the soundness of the scheme, who varieties; pesticides; and so forth. In short, it is is going to infuse it with life? Who is going high time that the theme song "all for agricul- to train the trainers to train the trainees? tural productivity" should contain a stanza or Possibly the extension service as part of its two on the beneficence of an improved exten- inevitable but slow adjustments to the demands sion system advocated for some time but never for doing things in agriculture on a new foot- realized. Failing that, the contradiction between ing; possibly as a result of the activities of all aims and means may prove costly to the new the agricultural universities as they acquire new strategy and to the farmers. research skills and seek the dissemination of Extension is more than the agents it em- their results. But most of this still lies in the ploys and trains. Training of the farmers to future. For the time being it will be up to the bring them as nearly in tune with the new farmers themselves to acquire whatever knowl- agricultural developments as possible is part edge they can from the outside while relying of it. To one official closely involved in the new on trial and error to solve some of their im- agricultural strategy this is the crucial part of extension because of lingering doubts that "they [VLWS] would automatically pass on the 8. J. C. Mathur, "Farmer's Training is Central contents of [their] training to farmers." He to Farm Production," Yojana (June 25, 1967), p. 15. has so little confidence in the role of the village 9. Ibid., p. 16. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 413 mediate problems. A costly process but prob- quantitative side of the story. Between 1951 ably the only practical one in the existing cir- and 1966 the number of credit cooperatives cumstances. increased from about 100,000 to 192,000 and their membership from 5 to 26 million. Loans advanced by them increased from Rs23 crores Rural Cooperative Credit to Rs365 crores, and their share of total farm credit from 3 to 25 percent. Paid-up share capital grew from Rs8 to Rs128 crores and de- Cooperatives in trouble posits from Rs4 to Rs46 crores. Borrowings India is wedded to the proposition that the from the Reserve Bank shot up from Rs5 credit needs of the farmers, as much else, can crores, and the average individual loan in- be best promoted through the medium of credit creased from Rs44 to Rs314. Nor have they cooperatives. Events have proved that the high stood still as distributors of farm inputs, aided hopes reposed in the cooperatives as the main- to be sure by the vast expansion of demand on stay of institutional credit and as an answer the one hand and until very recently a virtual to private moneylending have been exagger- monopoly of fertilizer sales on the other. ated. Though they are a very important source Judged in such global terms and with a net- of credit and the volume of loans keeps on work of 23 state (apex) and 348 central (dis- rising, their performance on an all-Indian scale trict) cooperative banks, a growing number is not getting much better. In the words of the of noncredit cooperatives and here and there late V. T. Krishnamachari ,o "The more and the successful marketing of cash crops, the more we have expanded the cooperative move- movement has made much progress. Above all, ment since independence, the less and less it provides an important and additional source confidence it commands in the community." of credit to millions of farmers at a moderate This and much else are common knowledge, rate of interest of about 10 percent per year. but what makes the cooperatives topical again This is only one side of the coin, for the is that their state of disarray is more con- cooperatives were and are in a bad way, and spicuous and worrisome, just when new and not only on account of two drought years in promising stirrings in Indian agriculture call 1965-66 and 1966-67. One can say in 1968 for an efficient system for the distribution and with equal justification what the Bell report said utilization of credit. in 1964, namely, that the credit cooperatives are inefficient; their leadership is poor; and that corruption, vested interests, and politicking are Balance sheet of pluses and minuses common phenomena. The reliance of the co- For nearly half a century the Indian credit co- operatives on outside borrowing, instead of de- operatives played an insignificant role in rural creasing, is actually on the increase. The per- financing. They came to life only following the centage of overdues to total outstanding loans All-India Rural Credit Survey completed by is higher now than ever before, and this is the Reserve Bank in 1954. Having concluded true of the states where the cooperatives are that there is no substitute for rural cooperative most successful. The production-oriented loan credit, the Reserve Bank has been pumping policies are in serious difficulties, and concen- into the cooperatives an ever-increasing flow tration of institutional credit in the hands of of funds accompanied by a steady stream of the well-to-do farmers has deprived many recommendations to improve their perform- small and medium farmers of access to loans. ance. On the face of it, the liberalized credit Thousands of cooperatives are dormant and policy is a success and the cooperatives are a ready for the mortuary, and many more thou- force to reckon with. A few figures tell the sands are veering in the same direction. The extension of the movement and coverage of farmers are quite large on paper, but in reality 10. Vice chairman of the Planning Commission the members with "live accounts" in coopera- for over a decade and leader of the National Co- tive societies form less than one-half of the operative Union. total membership. Underlying it all is that with 414 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 notable exceptions the cooperatives are con- tion of the crop loan system; a word about the cerned mainly with quantitative rather than latter is in order before the two principal bank qualitative achievements. themes are taken up. The above charges explain, but only in part, Of all the recommendations to inject new why "only a small fraction of the 191,000 life into institutional credit-and they are primary cooperative societies could be deemed legion-the key one of the Action Program to be successful in any sense of the term."" for Cooperative Credit is the crop loan idea This in turn raised in some minds the alto- with its emphasis on productivity. Briefly, its gether novel question: are credit cooperatives guiding principles are these: Short-term loans necessary? An example of this is provided by are to be based on acreage and anticipated pro- the former chief minister of Haryana state. duction; the amount of a loan must relate to He is reported to have said that the cooperative the estimated outlay on raising the crop; and movement has gone "so awry in Haryana that the loan should be largely in kind, and its re- if my Viashal (Big) Haryana Party is to fight covery should follow immediately upon the in the General Elections with a plea that the harvest, in cooperation with a marketing so- (cooperative) movement be abandoned, it will ciety. Implicit in this is relaxation of restrictive sweep the polls."12 The validity of the chief features such as insistence on mortgageable minister's pronouncement is difficult to judge, property as security for most loans, absolute but even the avowed friends of institutional financial limits on individual borrowings, out- credit are deeply concerned about its present right refusal or severe limitation of credit to and future performance. tenants, and so forth. The loans under the new scheme rests on three components, popularly High-yielding varieties program and credit referred to as A, B, and C. Component A stands for the cash portion of the loan to meet house- The Bell report took note of the limited effec- hold expenditures during the crop season; com- tiveness of cooperative credit in relation to ponent B is the in kind portion of the loan, agricultural production at a time when tradi- theoretically the largest one, in the form of tional farm practices still blanketed the country. inputs, principally fertilizers; and component It is useful to inquire into the influence the C is another cash portion of the loan for ex- cooperatives exert on agriculture now that the penses incurred in the utilization of the inputs. improved technology is beginning to make No single standard of operation emerges headway. What is available by way of evidence from the detailed and voluminous findings of is a two-year time span during which new farm the Reserve Bank; this is natural in conditions inputs were becoming an important factor in varying so much from state to state and within production. This is admittedly too limited a states. Yet, viewed in relation to the introduc- period for firm judgments, especially since tion of high yielding varieties (HYV), the co- those were years of severe drought. Granting operatives "did not, on their part, have a feeling this, it appears nevertheless that the "Ap- of sufficient involvement in the program" and praisal of the High-Yielding Varieties Program "the central cooperative banks in certain states and Implementation of the Crop Loan System," did not seem to evince much interest in the recently completed by the Reserve Bank, carries program as their representatives did not find a lessons worth recording. Precisely because these place in the Coordination Committee ap- are, as we shall see, not new, they are auguries pointed to implement and review the progress for the years immediately ahead. Much of the under the program." There are more funda- evaluation relates to overdues and the applica- mental reasons for the lack of interest than the one just mentioned, but whatever they may be, the following should be noted: In 1966-67 11. P. R. Dubashi, "Cooperative Movement- the Reserve Bank earmarked special funds to Strategy for Development," The Financial Express stimulate the HYV program, but only 16 percent (March 22, 1968). 12. "Rural Society Being Ruined by Movement . Malpractices," The Times of India (November 8, with the coops in the nondrought year 1967- 1967). 68, based on its normal advances, was better The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 415 but not altogether satisfactory either. With a cent; many of them have defaulted altogether number of exceptions, the limits of financing and are no longer eligible for credit. The ex- by the cooperative banks sanctioned by the Re- amples of the cooperative movement, Maha- serve Bank lagged behind anticipations. In rashtra and Gujarat, are no exceptions and the *part, the Reserve Bank fell "victim" to the same goes for the progressive state of Madras. unfulfilled targets of Hyv estimates prepared This observer visited a block in the well-known by the states; but there is more to it than that, Tanjore district in late 1967, a good crop year. even when the difficult drought years are taken There, twenty-five out of the thirty-seven credit into consideration. According to the bank: cooperatives were in total default and had to be shut down; but, even before that action, only The reasons for shortfall in the lifting of 15 percent of the membership borrowed from credit were natural to conditions when the them. The principal cooperative officer of Tan- implementation of targeted programmes jore prefers to discuss his operations in terms could not make expected headway because of the aura surrounding the district as a great of lack of coordination among the various "success story," but when presented with un- services, lack of adequate publicity, lack of palatable evidence he admits that many other provision of scientific advice, deficiencies blocks tell the same story. The bank made a and delays in making arrangements for detailed examination of Andhra Pradesh which credit, fertilizers and improved seeds, non- reveals conditions just as bad, if in a different association of cooperative credit agency in form. In nine of the state's twenty-five central an adequate manner with the program, and cooperative banks, overdues in 1966-67 ranged so forth and so on. Responsibility, however, from a "low" of 55 to a high of 75 percent, lies squarely on the cooperatives for having which is a measure both of overdues and of the failed to make necessary supervision at- viability of the primary societies. Not unrelated rangements to tackle overdues on the one to this is that out of Andhra's 15,381 coopera- hand and to improve policies so as to make tives, only 831 and 367 of them respectively them production oriented and to remove the had full-time and part-time secretaries. bottlenecks in providing adequate credit for The causes leading to overdues were ex- production on the other. plained in considerable detail in the Bell re- port. Here it is to be noted that, while the o verdues official figures on overdues are bad enough, they do not reflect the real position of nonrepay- Much of the quoted statement, made in late ment. Many cooperatives indulge in consider- 1967, has the familiar ring of an old and much- able "window dressing" to put their best foot played gramophone record, but it doesn't touch forward on the eve of a new fiscal year. It is a on the reasons why the credit cooperatives be- widespread and normal practice among apex have as they do. Nevertheless, the "should have and central cooperative banks and primary co- been dones" are useful reminders of things operative societies to resort to all manner of gone wrong, and the crucial one among them is artificial "adjustments" to cover up their inade- the failure to reduce the overdues which have quacies in respect to deposits, loans, recoveries, in recent years risen to about 30 percent of and their overall financial position. loans outstanding. These restrict the flow of Credit cooperatives have been notoriously credit and have, not surprisingly, in the bank's lenient in collecting overdues in good as well view, "a crippling effect on agricultural pro- as bad crop years. Preliminary soundings about duction." The Reserve Bank singles out over- the 1967-68 recoveries, an outstandingly good dues as the worst manifestation of the credit crop year, are not encouraging, according to system's operations. Overdues are an old story officials of the Reserve Bank. Repayment of except that they have been rising-and not loans to moneylenders and other private sources only in years of bad crops. According to the is a priority obligation not enjoyed by the co- bank's findings, practically all states have dis- operatives. The decades-old philosophy that tricts with an "alarming" number of credit credit cooperatives are social welfare rather societies with overdues of more than 50 per- than business institutions and that government 416 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 funds make their wheels go round has not been chiefly in the form of fertilizer by eliminating lost on the borrowers, and the prevailing atti- features restricting the flow of credit from the tude is that government loans can wait. The coops to the farms. Save for Maharashtra and same attitude, supported by political considera- Gujarat, the system is not working well six or tion, extends to the cooperative leadership and seven years after its inauguration. The explana. personnel and expresses itself in a growing re- nation is threefold. In the first place, the in luctance to press for prompt repayment. This kind portion of the loan, which was expected explains the lament that "the members of the to tie credit to production, is meeting with panchayats, of the primaries, and the boards of little success; "it has to be recognized that the directors of the banks seem to be coming under linking of distribution of inputs to cooperative the influence of thinking which considers ener- credit has not made much progress."5 In the getic action for timely recovery as something second place, the cooperatives continue to grant undesirable, being likely to be unpopular."'3 loans on a basis which is in total variance with This comment goes back to 1964 or 1965, the crop loan idea, about which more later. In but nothing has changed since then; it is offi- the third place, one must keep in mind the cially attributed to the fact that "in most cases mistaken idea already touched upon-that the the overdues may be said to have risen from cooperative membership produces crops mainly the falling off in the standards of good co- for sale. Regardless of the valid or invalid cri- operative conduct."14 All such official state- teria underlying the crop loan system, having ments are followed by exhortations to make examined the application of the in kind por- good the loans through cooperative marketing tion of loans as part of the HYV program, the of farmers' products, thereby insuring the col- bank concluded that "district studies in all the lection of loans at the source. Cooperative mar- states reveal that much remains to be done to ketings have never accounted for more than implement this provision." 5 percent of the outstanding loans in any given From the point of view of input needs fi- year. But there is more to it than the inade- nancing and the magnitude of the task, when quacy of the marketing cooperatives. The often agriculture may well be poised for a significant bruited-about assumption that all members of breakthrough, the Reserve Bank's appraisal cooperatives (as farmers of India in general) cannot be questioned. More revealing of in have saleable surpluses of food grains is not kind versus cash credit, looking ahead to the warranted because the majority of the farmers crucial 1970-71 season, is the following: have little or nothing beyond what they retain While, for the package areas the portion of for their own consumption. It is true, therefore, the short-term cooperative credit advanced as official circles admit, that, perversity of the in kind can be said to be on an average borrowers aside, many of them cannot repay their loans even if they wanted to. Meanwhile, shty mredt 15vere o the total short-term credit provided, for the particular no stigma is attached to a defaulter who is part of a goodly company in the largest number of are. n whc i elding vare crops village communities, The upshot of it all is aegon h orsodn iuei bu villge ommuitis. Te ushotof t al Is 40 to 50 percent. For the country as a whole, that poor recoveries have proved to be a major .oerc the country as ao inhibiting factor in the way of expansion of howeer the percent . ma be ad coopratie crdit.broadly to be 15 percent in kind and 85 percent in cash, though precise information is not available. With the insistence now Crop loan system and cooperative credit placed by the Reserve Bank and the Central The crop loan system was intended to provide Government on the crop loan system, . . . it the badly needed production-oriented credit is possible to hope that about one-third of the total short-term cooperative credit for 13. Reserve Bank of India, Report of the In- formal Group on Distributional Arrangements for 15. "Report of the Fertilizer Credit Committee Agricultural Credit (1966), p. 39. of the Fertilizer Association of India" (1968), p. 14. Ibid., p. 46. 131. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 417 production for the country as a whole will, cited as prime evidence. Moreover, the vast by 1970-71, be advanced in the shape of increase in utilization of inputs in 1967-68, fertilizers.16 most of it distributed through the cooperatives, is an even more telling case in point-regard- This is probably a realistic estimate based on a less of whether or not this development is an sound appreciation of how far the cooperatives outcome of that particular provision of the can go in dispensing credit in kind, and it is also crop loan system. One must also assume that, a comment on the future utilization of fertilizer with the spread of the new farm practices, worth remembering. But perhaps the single bigger owners with a marketable surplus may most important factor is that the borrowers opt in increasing numbers for the in kind por- prefer cash loans and an undetermined but tion of the loan. But even if so, future projec- large number of cooperatives go along with tions indicate that the problem of solving this preference, advancing what should be the production credit is not assured. This stems in kind portion of the loan in cash, which on from the fact that the cooperatives have not numerous occasions means granting the entire yet mastered another basic provision of the loan in cash. crop loan system. The penchant for cash loans doesn't mean It will be recalled that, under that system, that the peasants did not want fertilizers and loans are supposed to be advanced to farmers other inputs. In fact, many of them turned not on the basis of creditworthiness judged in around and acquired them, often from the co- the context of tangible security they could offer operatives; but in doing this they frequently for the loan but on the basis for raising the had other considerations in mind not related to crop and their repaying capacity from the ex- production, such as household expenditures, re- pected crop. The merits and demerits of the payment or partial repayment of loans to non- system having been considered; on balance this institutional lenders, and so forth. In sum, this has been official policy for a number of years, meant that the size of the package of inputs was the purpose being the removal of restrictions being reduced. This was especially true of the on the flow of credit to those who need it most. vast number of small owners and tenants who In the main, the policy has been a failure. What do not fare well at all as borrowers on the with rising overdues, the insistence of the ground of lack of creditworthiness. We already coops on tangible security has reached the mentioned that the bulk of institutional credit point of absurdity, although the loan limits in goes to the well-to-do cultivators, and the meas- some states have been greatly increased from ure of it is pointed up by the Reserve Bank. It those of three or four years ago. In certain appears, then, that the 41 percent of the culti- districts of Andhra Pradesh, for example, co- vators whose asset holdings are less than operatives "insist on simple mortgage deeds Rs2,500 are getting only over 9 percent of the for loans up to RslOO. For loans above this credit, as compared with the 17 percent who amount, registered mortgage deeds are required are better off with assets of RslO,000 and to be given"-similarly and with variations in above, who account for 56 percent of the credit. a number of districts of other states. Since the richer farmers are no better repayers From the bank's point of view, the test of than the poor farmers, they share the greater creditworthiness as practiced by the coops responsibility for impeding the more rapid contradicts the main principle of the crop loan circulation of cooperative resources. system and it discriminates severely against The bank findings leave the impression that, small owners and particularly tenants who have while much is yet to be done to effect a link no tangible property to offer as security. The between the in kind portion of the loan and latter, to be sure, receive loans but they are production, improvements are bound to take more in the nature of subsidies than credit. The place; and Maharashtra and Gujarat, with their predilection of the cooperatives to play "safe" long record of outstanding top leadership, are by imposing security restrictions is understand- able, for even in .these circumstances overdues are increasing. But reducing the credit flow in 16. Ibid. order to improve recoveries is not a way out 418 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 either, placing the bank, the cooperatives, and programs, it became evident for some time the borrowers in a difficult situation for reasons that another source of credit must be added to already discussed. The Reserve Bank's appraisal what is available. The draft outline of the doesn't draw from this an overall conclusion, fourth plan (August 1966) took cognizance but those of the "Report of the Informal of this. Thus, while "The Cooperative credit Group" also sponsored by the bank, may be structure will of course be the main agency quoted here: for provision of rural credit . . . the credit needs of agriculture will be met by a variety of By and large, the picture which emerges is credit institutions."" one of inadequate implementation of the This departure from a long-established crop loan system in the country as a whole, policy gave rise in the past year to heated de- with the size of loan being restricted in bates as to who might provide the additional many cases by absolute quantitative limits source of credit, and all indications are that and being determined by such considera- the commercial banks are to be that source, a tions as the value of assets owned which source still largely untapped. One of the sticks could result in over-financing in some cases the government uses to get the banks in line or underfinancing in others with reference and help create a multi-institutional approach to the actual need for production credit.'7 is the threat of "social control," which is at Another important conclusion of the ap- best tighter Reserve Bank supervision of credit praisal is that the inadequate work of the coops allocation by commercial banks "in keeping .with the new national priorities," loosening cannot be attributed to lack of financial re- th te w faot ioraliand omer- the ties with favorite industrial and commer- sources. If resources were doubled, the prob- c . cial enterprises or restrictions in regard to lem posed by their failure to absorb properly loans to firms in which bank directors are what had been available to them would remain . unresolved. In the final analysis the main short- ineetd.n eti cagsi o aae unresofve the os an s the m rshty ment. But the real objective behind the move comings of the coops and the membership they is to compel the commercial banks to divert a serve converge on their absorptive capacity fair amount of their resources to the agricul- problem. There is no gainsaying the benefits tural sector. The alternative to "social control" of a continuous expansion of institutional is the threat of outright nationalization of the credit; but, if its improper distribution and banks. Much of the criticism against the banks utilization goes on unabated, if they fail to derives from the alleged fact that the total tie, firmly in most cases, credit to inputs, inputs number of their accounts is small and that out to output, and output to storage and market- of an estimated 700,000 accounts not more ing-all these cannot help but constrain the than 600 draw 50 percent of all the credit. great potential of Indian agricultural resources. I han gover of the rePty There are other reasons for the existence of Ideological hangovers of the Congress Party thee cnstains, ot ll f te copeaties' may have something to do with this pressure, these constraints, nor all of the cooperatives' but one of the main charges is that commer- making, and more about them later. cial banks extend very little credit to agricul- ture. This is correct, and in the opinion of the cooperative specialist what little agricultural Commercial Banks and Rural Credit credit is provided by them "is nothing but an eyewash to blur the view of the critics." Why coimercial banks and their past record The resources of the commercial banks have risen sharply over the years, as evidenced by Because they perform as they do and because even under sounder conditions of granting credit the cooperatives cannot supply the rising 18. "Fourth Five-Year Plan-A Draft Outline," rural needs engendered by the new agricultural p. 140. 19. Actually closer to a million, but many bor- rowers have two or three accounts at the same bank. The figures cited have not been checked and are 17. Ibid., p. 41. considered only approximate. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 419 the amount of loans advanced: from Rs585 cial credit for seed farms, minor irrigation, crores in 1951 to Rs2,347 crores in 1966. This mechanization, construction of warehouses, is not reflected in their relationship to agricul- transportation of agricultural products, and so ture. In 1951 commercial bank loans to agri- forth. The cooperatives look upon them as an- culture totalled Rsl2 crores, or 2 percent of the other "eyewash" scheme on the ground that total loans advanced by them; in 1966 the the sponsors allegedly do not understand farm comparable figures were only Rs5 crores and financing, that the contemplated resources were 0.2 percent. Now as in the past this credit is inadequate, that the cooperation contemplated given mostly to plantations where the risk is no direct risk taking, and that the majority of more predictable, but the decline in recent small farmers could not benefit from the corpo- years indicates that even they are not credit- rations anyway. So far the coops succeeded in worthy or sufficiently remunerative to banks preventing any action since the scheme was enjoying booming profits in a lenders' market. first mentioned in 1964. Most banks consider agriculture too volatile, The cooperatives reacted similarly to taccavi risky, and costly, and the mobilization of rural loans. Every state government had been giving deposits not worth their time and effort. Be- such loans at lower interest rates than those sides, the unenviable financial record of the charged by the cooperatives; they were origi- cooperatives was more than sufficient to keep nally distributed to farmers only through state the commercial banks out of agriculture. This agricultural offices. Upon the insistence of the is the way it came about: "The provision of cooperatives that such handling of credit is un- credit had been left either to the traditional fair and not in their best interest, several state money-lenders (with full regard for profit and governments started routing the taccavi loans none for welfare) or to the cooperative organi- through the cooperatives. In fact, so vehement zation (which is nearly all welfare and not was the opposition to any other agency entering cost or profit-conscious and has no surplus to the agricultural field that the former minister meet the welfare from) ."20 of food and agriculture, M. C. Subramaniam, spoke as follows: Cooperatives fear competition I would beg of my friends to realise that, . . while cooperation is a good way to render The reluctance of the banks to engage in agri- -eie tot er s other insituion cultural financing is matched by the opposition should no tbe fre othe "stablis of the cooperatives to "outsiders" who aspire ment" n ce rles was.quie wEdup to provide credit to farmers, even if govern- wen the ugg es was made tharte Fo ment sponsored. Competence or incompetence Corpora tion ol et te fiel od aside, cooperative leadership assumes that, with fpoaticul en the fod orpo- the exception of moneylenders, institutional rto p rss o en the Fed wore rural credit is a monopoly not to be infringed tld,pitwould ct acros the pilp tat told, it would cut across the philosophy that upon by others and competition is to be cooperatives are the only institutions which avoided. The entry of others is not seen as an should extend credit.2' expansion of total credit supply that might in the process help the cooperatives but as a re- If the vested interests of institutional credit duction in their business and in the business could display such a disposition toward the of cooperative banks. A few instances illustrate government's own schemes, their negative atti- the point. The coops have been opposing the rude toward commercial banks as potential setting up of central government and state- suppliers of rural credit is not surprising. Ac- supported agricultural finance corporations in cording to existing regulations, relations be- areas where the cooperative credit structure is tween cooperatives and banks are circum- very weak, for the purpose of providing spe- scribed to a point of almost nonexistence as 20. A. M. Khusro, "Banking and Agriculture," 21. 0. P. Karla, "Nationalization of Rural A Symposium on Banking (April 29, 1968), p. 2. Banks," Indian Express (December 19, 1967). 420 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 borrowers from the banks, or having accounts protected against competition because "Once with them, or learning something useful from the commercial banks are permitted to enter their practices. In all of this the cooperative the field," the report notes, "the cooperative system maintains a stance of "splendid isola- movement, already weak, will be rendered tion," which in turn is derived from a long weaker . . . such onslaughts [emphasis added] history of idealization of the cooperatives as on the cooperatives should be properly something of a "cure-all" rather than from the countered only through proper service to farm- economic services they render to the farmers. ers." The expressed hope is also familiar and Yet, the cooperatives can no longer offer the means to translate it into reality are just blanket opposition to the government's pressing as familiar-and so far largely ineffective. Be- of the commercial banks into the rural credit cause of the latter, this much is clear: Competi- field and get away with it. If there is, therefore, tion is one thing cooperatives cannot stand no avoiding the banks, the contention is that whether in respect to credit, distribution of their role must be only an indirect one. This inputs, or marketing of agricultural products- was spelled by the chairman of the Gujarat despite the fact that they are supposedly closer State Cooperative Conference in late January to the villagers and have decades of experience of this year. He stated that the banks should behind them. not extend credit to farmers directly; instead, they ought to lend money to the cooperatives Prospects of commercial hank credit or subscribe for debentures of the cooperative land mortgage banks. In some such manner As of the moment, it is evident that the con- commercial banks and cooperatives would cre- mercial banks are beginning to inch into the are a partnership, but of a kind that would rural credit business, both indirectly and di- preclude direct involvement of the banks with rectly. So far and bending under pressure, the farmers. Avoidance of "direct involvement" among which is a provision that no bank can is a recurring theme of the cooperative leader- open a new urban branch unless it opened also ship. The explanation, as noted earlier, lies in two rural branches, they have invested Rsl8 the fear of competition. The above referred-to crores in debentures of the Central Land Mort- chairman of the Gujarat State Cooperative gage Bank. Additionally, they have created a Conference let the cat out of the bag when new institution, the Agricultural Finance he reportedly spoke to this effect: "Mr. Patel Corporation Limited, which is considering the expressed his apprehension that if the commer- financing of a number of development schemes cial banks started competition the discipline in to the tune of over RslO crores. The corpora- the cooperative organizations would be ad- tion has an authorized capital of RsO0 crores, versely affected.'22 Mr. Patel is no exception. of which RsIO crores had been issued and Rs5 According to an acidly penned major survey crores had been paid up and available for lend- of the cooperatives of Madras, published in ing. The corporation is expected to select com- early 1968, "Farmers are increasingly going to mercial banks as agents, the choice depending private money-lenders instead of cooperatives upon the strength of a particular bank's con- offering low interest rates. The reasons could centration in a selected area. A few of the be the farmers' inability to give security, non- banks with branches in small centers, which acceptance of farmers as members, delay in are rural or semiruiral, have actually gone into processing applications or denial of loans to financing of tractors and other farm inputs. In tenants."23 This is familiar stuff, if worth re- Rajasthan, for example, the maximum of such peating. Of greater immediate interest is that, loans can be as high as Rs30,000 with an in- however badly the coops work, they must be terest rate of 9 percent per year and repayment in four years on a quarterly or semiannual basis. The same bank, the Rajasthan branch of the 22. "Banks asked to give Farm Loans through Dena Bank, is also prepared to extend short- Co-ops," Financial Express (January 28, 1968). 23. Excerpt from the report quoted in "Inability term loans up to a maximum of Rs5,000 for of Co-op Banks to Utilize Funds Deplored," Finan- the purchase of fertilizer, seed, and insecticides. cial Express (March 5, 1968). The State Bank of Patiala has more recently The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 421 begun to provide more credit, while the State cultivators, thus creating more business for the Bank of India is ready to underwrite some of bank. the credit required by the hybrid seed project Time will tell how widespread the rural in the Terai. credit operations of the commercial banks will The one pioneer in the field is the Mysore become; but, if they do take a leaf out of the state-based Syndicate Bank. Though only Syndicate Bank, chances are that they will be eleventh among commercial banks in overall in business on a fairly significant scale. At first resources, in the past few years it has accumu- glance, the widely dispersed lending operation, lated 3,000 active farm accounts, ranging from illiteracy of the farmers, uncertainty of agri- Rs500 to Rsl5,000 and a record of repayments cultural production, and legal and institutional of 96 percent. Its "pigmy deposits" scheme per- obstacles in collecting overdues stand in the mits a farmer to put into his saving account as way of farm financing through commercial little as 25 paise at a time, but the net result banks. On the other hand, a number of condi- has been the mopping up of a good deal of tions favor them. The principal one is that rural deposits where the bank operates. One agriculture is becoming production oriented of the innovations is that the bank doesn't and demand for credit is bound to grow. What- always stick to conventional banking practices. ever the volume of business and the new In a personal interview, the president of the methods of expanding credit among the culti- Syndicate Bank did not disclaim the need for vators, they will draw a sizable clientele among safe security, but he practices a "mix" of se- the large owners of unencumbered and mort- curity in the usual sense where possible and/or gageable properties. whether the farm has a growth potential com- In many instances, the interest rate of the bined with the farmer's repaying integrity. The banks and the cooperatives are approximately theory tested by the bank is that, if the lending the same, but even if the former charged an- policy leads to greater production and absorp- other 2 percent, the differential would be too tive capacity of the borrower, it would also lead small to deter one from dealing with the banks. to a greater repayment capacity. From the borrower's point of view there is Implicit in this approach are the bank's considerable advantage of not getting involved economic "feasibility" studies about the econ- with the time-consuming cooperative pro- omy of the farm in question and the farmer's cedures in granting a loan. Finally, some farm- condition; granting of loans mostly in kind- ers might borrow from the banks and the be it a purchase of a tractor, a pump set, ferti- cooperatives, and the latter are justifiably con- lizer, and so forth; supervision of credit so that cerned lest the former enjoy repayment pri- a loan earmarked for production items is spent ority. With this in mind, in a recent talk with accordingly; and technical advice by the bank's the registrar of cooperatives of the Punjab staff. The bank then is both a provider of loans state, he argued strongly that such dual bor- as well as a source of agricultural extension rowings ought to be prohibited as far as the work. It may be concluded that, but for the banks are concerned. The rationale is that in fact that the Syndicate Bank doesn't engage in the absence of proper coordination such marketing of agricultural products, it practices schemes may lead to duplication or multiplica- something akin to the integrated cooperative tion of institutional agencies in some parts of scheme (ics) recommended by the Rural the country where the cultivator borrower may Credit Survey many years ago but not always be overcredited; in that event, overcrediting the practiced by the cooperatives. The services farmer is as dangerous as not granting him any rendered by the bank are expensive and the credit at all. But above all and not unreason- cost per farm loan is higher than the cost of ably, the cooperatives dread the prospect of an industrial and commercial loan. Yet the being left with fewer big borrowers and more bank is making money though at a lower rate of the small farmers with poor security stand- of profit, has few overdues, and is expanding ing and a poor record of payment. If this comes agricultural financing with an eye of reducing to pass, the problem will not rest with the costs and in anticipation that the new tech- banks, for the presumption is that in the main nology will be affecting a rising number of they will deal with small farmers only to the 422 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 extent of meeting minimum political consid- Clearly, the credit cooperatives are here to erations. stay, but the question of how to rid them of Since problems and solutions have often a their shortcomings remains unanswered. The way of passing each other by, not all of the plethora of recommendations for remedial ac- above might turn out as suggested. But if they tion made over the years have proved of little do and the banks secure a fair share of the avail. The Bell report makes ample references rural credit business, the question that arises is to these measures and they need not be re- whether or not this would induce the coopera- peated. What should be stressed, however, is tives to greater efficiency. If the answer is in that with the spread of the new technology the the negative, the dire forebodings of the coops cooperatives will be faced with more formi- may come true. Regardless of how the coopera- dable tasks than ever before. "In 1970-71 the tives feel about the intrusion, the participation total cooperative short-term loans are en- of the commercial banks in rural credit, even if visaged on the order of Rs6,500 million to on a selective basis, is a welcome step in the Rs7,000 million, as against Rs3,000 million in right direction; and the move is just another 1965-66."2` This includes Rs2,700 million for sign of the weakness of the cooperatives, the fertilizer alone. rise of agricultural productivity, and the ener- Funds to enlarge their capital base to meet gizing effect of the threat of "social control." these requirements are likely to be found; whether the coops will be better prepared for the additional responsibilities is doubtful. The Assessment of the Cooperative Movement same committee just referred to states that in Neither the commercial banks nor any new arriving at the estimated figures "we have made source of farm credit can displace the coopera- the assumption that all possible steps at all tives or even significantly reduce the scope of levels would be taken to improve the per- their activities. The new sources, if and when formance of the cooperative credit structure they come, promise only indirect and limited not only quantitatively but also qualitatively answers to coop disabilities. Virtually all official in the next few years."21 Judging by past ex- reports on cooperatives are of a critical nature, perience, the assumption of a more durable and but they all end on the note that they must con- better functioning movement may prove pre- tinue and must succeed. "If cooperation fails, mature. In the customary fashion of the years there will fail the best hope of rural India," or gone by, a restatement of the well-known rec- "Cooperation has failed, but Cooperation must ommendations will undoubtedly follow, but succeed"2' are the guidelines of any official at- the issue as far as we are concerned is not their tempts to improve cooperative credit system. content but why they fared badly. Why, then, The latest in the series, the very outspoken have the recommendations-many of them Madras report, brands as "shameful" the fact sound ones-gone by the board? Are the short- that after sixty-three years in being, only 30 comings of the cooperative movement remedi- percent of the members of the coops borrow, able or are they inherent in its structure to a but there is no hint of doing away with them. point of no return? In other words, is the as- Whatever their weaknesses and however vo- sortment of cooperative weaknesses and the ciferous the grumblings of the membership, educational and technical backwardness by they are too much a part of the rural scene; which they are accentuated a subsidiary ailment and the vested interests controlling them and or the main disease itself? their supporters in the central and state gov- The answers to these questions are many. ernments are sufficiently strong to insure their Some are rooted in the origins or philosophy existence. Realistically speaking, therefore, the of the movement; some derive from the size question, "are cooperatives necessary?" cannot of the holdings, tenure systems, quality of land be answered negatively. 25. "Report of the Fertilizer Credit Committee," 24. All-India Rural Credit Survey, pp. 250 and p. 222. 372, respectively. 26. Ibid, p. 234. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 423 and rainfall conditions, type of population financed by just another government depart- served, and resulting income; some, and just as ment. The fostering of self-government and importantly, are rooted in the social environ- self-reliance was minimal. When looked at ment of rural India and some in the fact that from the point of view as to who dominates in recent years the cooperatives have also be- the local cooperatives now, it is clear that what come political institutions, an arena of con- may have been a period of trial and error tention among political parties. These cause gradually evolved more or less into a norm in categories are not of the cooperatives' making; postindependent India. Another early precedent but the structural and functional arrangements, essentially gone unchanged is the idea that the insofar as they relate, respectively, to the credit cooperatives are largely relief rather than organization and working of the cooperative business institutions, that their own resource credit societies and banks, are of their own participation is small, government providing creation for which they cannot shed responsi- most of it. The 20 percent share of the working bility. In inuch of this, interpretation must deal capital owned by the coops in the late 1960s with many intangibles not subject to quantifica- is a case in point. Taken together, the historical tion. And it should be added that in not all conditioning carried over with no significant instances do the categories fall in neat, segre- amendations into our days explains at least gated compartments without overlapping and partly why sixty-three years after their exist- affecting each other. With these caveats out of ence quantitative as against qualitative factors the way, the "whys" of the cooperative credit and original purposes compared with actual movement are considered in some detail in the practices and ends they serve diverge so widely subsequent paragraphs. from one another. Important as these are in shaping the co- Historical and environmental factors operative structure, more vital still are the factors which determine the cultivators eco- Cooperations as an idea and credit cooperatives nomic activity and social background against as an institution were introduced by the British which the activity takes place. The reference in response to the poverty of the mass of the is to the Indian subsistence farmers who con- small cultivators. From the very inception, stitute the majority of all farmers and whose however, and down through the decades, this income and consumption expenditures lag be- purpose did not stick because "From character hind production. Whatever institutional credit and repaying capacity, judged by local knowl- they do get is helpful, but it is not sufficient to edge and kept under review by local vigilance, make a nonviable enterprise viable. With all cooperative credit, at a very early stage, gravi- their faults, credit cooperatives cannot be held tated to ownership and landed security."27 By solely or mainly responsible for this state of virtue of being affluent and politically influen- affairs. Credit for productive purpose is self- tial, the rich rather than the poor farmers came financing only-in the sense that repayments to dominate the coops and enjoy the lion's are made-if the farmer produces a surplus share of the benefits from cheap credit. This over and above his costs and consumption cannot be viewed in isolation from another needs. In the case of subsistence farmers, it is historical condition, namely, that the coops did not "self-financing." In recent years nearly 50 not commence nor have they developed at any percent of their total borrowings was for time since as a popular movement in which "household expenditures." This would not con- the membership is "involved" and cooperatives stitute a serious impediment if the size of their are cared for by the members as their very own. holdings and productivity left a marketable This apartness which still bedevils them harks surplus large enough to cover all elements of back to their origins when they were being production, including "household expenditures" created, rigidly administered, supervised, and as a legitimate cost of production or the wage equivalent of family labor utilized in cultiva- tion. This, however, is not the normal condition. 27. All-Union Rural Credit Survey, vol. II, Against the background of the 1967-68 (Bombay, 1954), p. 259. excellent crop and high hopes that an agricul- 424 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 tural breakthrough is practically at hand, there situation not of their making. They cannot is a tendency to overlook the seamy side of revise the inequitable land structure of India, India's agricultural structure. But it is there and only occasionally and temporarily can they just the same and is not about to fade away. alleviate its worst features. The following Thus: written sixteen years ago with no special refer- ence to India is germane to an important Farm management data of recent years lend "why" of Indian credit cooperatives: support to the belief that under average con- ditions, a farm of less than 7.5 acres size- The fact that the cooperative credit move- which incidentally is the average size of ment has made such limited progress . . . farms in India-can neither provide ade- suggests that the causes of failure lie deeper quate family consumption, nor support a than administrative defects . . . They lie . . . pair of bullocks nor adequately employ in the chronic insufficiency of the farmers' family labor or bullock labor of a single income and consequent tendency of con- pair, nor, indeed, deliver surpluses for pur- sumption to outrun production. In countries poses of industrialization. Such a farm is of subsistence agriculture, the mobilization quite seriously disabled and if full value of savings is impossible, if savings do not were inputed to human and bullock labor, exist . . . the problem of credit cannot be it turns out to be a non-profit making solved in terms of reform of the credit venture.28 mechanism alone, and the extension of credit More to the point is the case of farms aver- facilities to small farmers through the co- aging 5 acres, or what the above-quoted Dr. operative principle can only be successful if Khusro calls "the limit of economic feasibility it is applied as part of a general programme under Indian conditions of today." The area of agricultural re-organization.-"' occupied by this group is only an estimated 12 These observations illustrate that not all the percent of the total farm acreage. "But to say reasons usually given to explain the inade- this," Dr. Khusro remarks, "is not to forget quacy of the coops can be placed at their door. the problem of 56 percent of farm families and Besides, considerations on the part of other a mere 12 percent of acreage and facing disa- policymaking agencies enter into the picture. bilities of small consumption, small employ- But it Would be a mistake to conclude that the ment and small surplus."2 These facts go far structure of the agricultural economy is the sole toward explaining why, apart from the reasons explanation of the generally accepted thesis noted in previously, millions of cultivators do that coops are not nearly as good as they should not meet their loan obligations; it points also be. After all, by far the greater part of the to an important cause of the strain imposed on land of India is not in subsistence agriculture, the cooperatives for reasons other than their yet the records of the coops in financing farm- poor judgment in making loans, poor adminis- ers with such holdings is far from a success tration, or the like. Since the reference is to story. Part of the difficulty affecting small and farmer owners, it is all too clear how much big farmers alike is the enormous effort that greater the strain is on the cooperatives in ex- has gone into the expansion of the cooperative tending loans to the many tenants who work network in order to meet quantitative targets somebody else's land. Any assessment of the and only here and there-and upon reminders- cooperatives must, therefore, take into consid- a side-glance to quality standards. The excep- eration the state of the country's agricultural tions merely prove that a reasonably sound economy in general and the position in it of a administrative mechanism with a staff which is vast group of badly situated farmers. In a real less ill-paid, less ill-trained, and more adequate sense and while not explaining everything, the is not always out of reach. cooperatives are to a large extent victims of a 30. All-India Rural Credit Survey, vol. 11, p. 28. A. N. Khusro, "Rural Development," unpub- 254, quoted from International Conference on Agri- lished paper, p. 13. cultural and Cooperative Credit. "Selected Readings 29. Ibid. in Agricultural Credit" (1952), pp. 72-75. The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 425 Village leadership or vested interests The role of the "vested interests," a common In any attempt to augment the exception cate- nomenclature in cooperative circles, is as old gory, note must be taken not only of efficiency as the system itself, except that they have ex- factors but also of two additional and very panded with the expansion of the system. Who significant "whys": the small but powerful in- they are and what they do is well known. The terests which rule the local cooperatives as if "not uncommon inclination of members," the they were their private property and the unde- survey authors write, "to treat the society as a sirable interference in the affairs of the co- close preserve of one class of persons in the ,operatives by the national political parties. We village may be traced to the character of the are not repeating the obvious: the usual recom- village leadership, to the bias towards owner- mendations that these realities must fade away. ship of land and to influence of caste." As if to It needs to be stressed that they are "flesh of make certain that there is no mistaking who the flesh and bone of the bone" of the coopera- these people are, the following is worth re- tive movement and that it leads to such abuses cording: "It is only in India one finds . . . as the exploitation of the coops for the benefit millowners, rentier landlords and traders being of the very few, outright corruption, and the the leaders of cooperative organizations and accentuation of the already existing wide gap yet we hear not a whisper from any quarter of the privileged and the nonprivileged. There- against this entry of inimical elements in the in lie some of the explanations why intended cooperative body."32 There are also the village reforms of institutional credit have so largely headman, panchayat leaders, local moneylend- failed. ers, representatives of the highest caste, and The items on the "interests" and politicians revenue officials. Their power is enhanced be- do not lend themselves to statistical proof, but cause some of them are connected with the the validity of the nonstatistical evidence can- seats of administrative power as appointed or not be swept under the rug. The evidence elected officers. The survey was prepared in the stretches throughout the history of coopera- very early 1950s, but the "all-in-all" are tives and is incorporated in official reports, stronger in the 1960s; they have successfully books, articles, and eyewitness accounts. This 'extended their hand" on the course of the observer, with no special mission to investi- agrarian reforms, have grown richer, the co- gate their work, listened to farmers on two operative business has vastly expanded and so occasions with fascination as they were de- have the stakes in it. scribing the "considerations" to secure a loan. The survey makes clear who controls the One of the farmers who paid for the "privi- local credit societies; the findings a decade or lege" but did not get the loan elicited no more more later do not differ in any essentials. In sympathy than a chorus of guffaws from a large 1963 after a wide-ranging trip through the gathering of cultivators. The tale of piling in- country, Daniel Thorner wrote that "It almost sult upon injury was not as unique to the seemed as if a man couldn't be considered im- gathering as it was to us; it appeared like a portant unless he had in his grip an agricultural minor and acceptable abuse to live with, lubri- cooperative whose funds he was diverting to cating, if not always, this particular aspect of support his own private business venture." The agricultural development. A variation on such state of Mysore "furnishes the example par episodes and other malpractices and shady deals excellence of leading families who completely derives its significance not from the action of control village affairs, including the coopera- an impecunious clerk but rather from the be- tives." And so in state after state, and he con- havior of those whom the All-India Survey cludes that "The little people cannot sit as stamps as the "upper 10 percent," or in the equals with the important people . . . It is felicitous expression of one writer, the local doubtful that they work together on a coopera- "all-in-all."3' tive basis."33 The most pointed comment on 31. Daniel Thorner, Agricultural Cooperatives in 32. All-India Credit Survey, pp. 263, 265. India-A Field Report (New Delhi: Asia Publish- 33. Thorner, Agricultural Cooperatives in India, ing House, 1964), p. 6. pp. 5-7. 426 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 the economic consequences and the so far re- Village polarization and obstruction of reforms signed acceptance of the situation is a saying Two lessons can be drawn from the preceding. among the Uttar Pradesh peasants, which, freely The first one is that, whereas cooperatives imply translated, stands for the familiar "To him that . hath much, much shall be given." In late 1967 uno.fcmo ineet.n ffr,teei hathmuc, mch hal be ive." n lte 967 nothing in their records that points in that di- in a series of articles by a leading corporation of notin. Thesi rcd ttontsin thati- India under the general title "Co-ops with the on the soi.a an onm sertism Lid Off,""' one finds yet another confirmation .o e a village in olitryn the of the same story. The theme is wider than the cooperatives as catalysts in bringing the com- one dealt with here, but one thing is clear' munity closer together misfired. Led by the. The coeratwivhe nte oe ahig plr: local leadership, they have actually drawn sharp The cooperatives continue to be a playground lie .fdmrainbtencliao n for the village leadership described. lines of demarcation between cultivator and All this is true, but it must be qualified. The cultivator, caste and caste, and generally speak- Al thsi .re u tms eqaiid h ing between the weak and the strong. In sum, village is under tied control of the few; but, as .ient wea an the strng.tns the iron of it is that in these circumstances we shall point out elsewhere in connection it fell y with panchayat elections, the village is no otot of the copate to furter longer silent and the villagers are picking and .te polrao of the vilaeqtonansunprece- choosing. The new agrobiological and political .e happenings have their economic and social ef- might be as time marches on we leave to the fects and voices of dissent are heard. Their Indian astrologers, but it can be said that the significance shotild nor be exaggerated, but the vast expansion of institutional credit has seri- ouis chinks in its armor; the "vested interests" very promise of the new technology being real- ized by a minority of cultivators is provoking have managed to subvert its benefits, just as some of the majority to speak out about their they subverted much else that didn't suit their wrongs as well as their rights-more about the purpose. former, to be sure, than the latter. The fol- The second lesson is that they have so far h i succeeded in precluding any meaningful co- lowng pisde on ofthemay, s nt wth operative credit reforms where such are tech- out interest. "It was a fascinating sight," a opeativ creIt r s ere sc ae te repoterwrits, at apubic metig inthe nically possible. It is very tempting to let the reporter writes, "at a public meeting in the sre pa o h eod o hti a vicinity of Nagarjunasagar where the Andhra suvysekfrtereod.o hti a rvcinuey miNistejunsar, . B B ti, wAndi said on this crucial point in the early 1950s revenue minister, V. B. Baju, was dis- .a atclrrlvne ntelt 90.I tributing titles for uncultivated land to land- has particular relevance in the late 1960s. In lessuting laoes at ancmprivted ce ny. od- a section on "village leadership and adminis- less laborers at an impressive ceremony. Sud- tration" we read that "This close conformity of denly a woman stood up. Her face was covered ascainaditrssbtentesbri - - . .association and interests between the subordi- with a veil, but her voice was firm. 'What is the use of this ceremony,' she shouted, 'when nateffl vrment an the mor the land is useless and every little thing we powerful elements in the village is a matter to need we have to bribe your officials'." This, be borne in mind as of great significance in ex- needwe aveto rib you oficils'" Tis, plaining the failure of implementation of the appearing in an article under the suggestive plinin t ire o pemation othe title of "Many-Splendoured March of Farm policies and directives, cooperative and other, tileof"MnySpedore Mrc o Fr emanating from higher levels of administra- Revolution" is no more than a single strand of ema nating .meres ofadhinistra- tha reoltio, nd hewomn' oubust il tion." Even when measures reaching the vil- that revolution, and the woman's outburst will aeaetasae noato,te r o not put an end to bribery or to the distribution lage are translated into action, they are not of "useless" land. And yet in any assessment of necessarily lasting, "especially when they in- the current scene, particularly in its relation to volve some disadvantage to the more powerful the new technology and hopes aroused, that in the village." And so the judgment: "Acting woman's dashing of cold water on the big "do" in concert with these, the subordinate official, is an encouraging aspect of an otherwise try- whose function takes him to the village, cre- ing state of affairs. ates for the benefit of superior officers what might be called the illusion of implementation 34. Times of India (November 6, 8, 14, and woven round the reality of non-compliance." 17). But the burden of "change around changeless- The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 427 ness" is always attributed to the few wheeler- assemblies) are found in commanding posi- dealers of the cooperatives; while "The status tions throughout the cooperative structure. In quo and the non-compliance are often achieved certain states the MLA's are in sufficient pres- conjointly" with the subordinate agencies of ence in important jobs as to term that condi- government, the prime movers are "the leading tion "emmelaitis."" The thrust of this develop- elements of the village."35 So much for this ment, however, is not on the democratization group, their use of the cooperatives for their of India's body politic but on something more particular interests, and by the same token the immediately tempting, namely, the fact that disadvantaged of the great mass of cultivators cooperatives are big business with millions of who get the short end of cooperative credit. It borrowers and large and constantly expanding all sums up in one of the most important government resources at their command. To "whys" of the nature and performance of the "capture" a cooperative, especially the big ones, credit cooperatives. or a cooperative bank opens vast opportunities of a varied kind. They become centers of po- Party politics and cooperatives litical power, raise the leader's prestige in the eyes of the membership; and it enables him to The role of the political parties in the local build a following to influence election results. credit societies and credit banks is closely re- On the economic side it opens the opportunity lated to that exercised by the stronger elements of favors and special favors and gains as dis- in the village. In fact, socially and economically tributors of patronage through loans, contracts, the politicians and the "strong" are often un- and jobs. The evidence is that the politicians, distinguishable from one another, partly be- whether in direct or indirect leadership, and cause the leadership of the coops is made the usually influential members of the coops up of many politicians and partly because have not neglected these opportunities. The the interests of the two are closely inter- question is: What good does it do to the co- related. With the rising proliferation of operatives as an institution called upon to serve political activity since independence, the co- the legitimate and best interests of the mem- operatives couldn't escape becoming an arena bership? for political involvement or, as some prefer it, One should note first that political involve- hotbeds of political strife. The prevailing view mients are not universally detrimental to for- of those who shape cooperative ideology is tunes of the coops; there are many cooperative twofold: (a) The politicization of the coopera- organizations which prospered under a politi- tives is interfering with the normal operations cally involved and dynamic leadership. Maha- of basic purposes of a cooperative organiza- rashtra offers many such examples. Secondly, it tion; and (b) it deflects them from the prin- is virtually in the nature of a cooperative ciple of political neutrality, thereby introducing organization to serve as a communication chan- an element of divisiveness and conflict. And nel for political ideas from on-high down to everything in the history of the cooperatives the villages. For this reason, "some degree of tells us that they could do very well without politics seem to be inherent in the cooperative such additional constraints. But there is yet an- structure in the context of the wider political other weighty reason for this negative attitude, system. It has to be accepted as a fact of life."31 which is not dissimilar from the one already Where the rub comes in is in the difficulty and discussed about the vested interests in relation failure to draw a line between what one might to the cooperatives, .calla . , to thecoopertives.call "legitimate" and "excessive" mnvolvement. It was natural to expect that politics, in the . sense of aims pursued by political parties, In India the relationship of politics and the would extend to the cooperatives. And so it did, and local politicians aspiring to higher office and MLA's (members of the legislative 36. Thorner, Agricultural Cooperatives in India, P. 11. 37. B. S. Baviscar, "Cooperatives and Politics," Economic and Political Weekly (March 23, 1968), 35. All-India Credit Survey, p. 277. P. 495. 428 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 cooperatives is often so intimate that the that, if shorn of continuous pump priming, the latter become political footballs. Some have majority of the cooperatives would collapse gone through that experience (Kerala) with like a house of cards. the change of political party leadership. The No such upheaval is going to take place. same holds for individual or groups of coops, What with the new technology in being, more and favorites today are on the losing end to- funds will be provided from governmental morrow. The cooperative as a unit, or the apex sources regardless of whether the system works or central banks for that matter, suffer when better or not. Competition may or may not decisionmaking is motivated by political rather smooth out the worst features of credit dis- than economic considerations. And these are tribution. One thing is certain: The largest not rarities. Apart from this, it is well to re- share of the credit will be given to those farm- iterate the politically inspired gains of the ers who are the principal participants in the insiders. They accentuate the already existing new technology. They may not utilize it most wide gap between various groups in the com- efficiently for reasons already stated, but the munity; and, on the top of the so-called institutional credit will gravitate to them be- "normal" activities of the people of standing cause the new agricultural policy staked its and influence, the two cannot but have a detri- goals on the skills and resources of these very mental effect on the healthy growth of the farmers. If cooperative credit should prove in- cooperative movement. sufficient, they are in a position to tap other sources to a greater degree than ever before. The conclusion may be drawn that, as to credit Conclusion availability, the new technology and the farmers it primarily serves will not be affected ad- Such in brief are the principal environmental versely to any significant degree. factors which go a long way to explain why This is only one side of the story. The other the cooperatives behave as they do. They are and more difficult one can best be stated by by far more difficult to deal with than the so- raising the following question: What about called "normal" technical cooperative prob- the great mass of the farmers who are not part lems. Over the years the latter have been of the new strategy or technology but are subjected to continuous investigations and an capable of raising productivity on their small endless stream of recommendations how to holdings, who are in greater need of credit cope with them. In the main, the medicine did than the well-to-do and yet are getting little not take and laments about the state of the of it or none at all? To pose this question is cooperative system are as widespread as ever. not to imply that small farmers have not taken The large expansion of membership, finan- advantage of the new inputs or that they will cial resources, and loans outstanding are unde- not do so in the future. They recognize that niably beneficial to many farmers and are signs some of the new varieties and what goes with of growth. Yet though this paper is not a de- them spell the difference between subsistence tailed examination of the system, enough has and better living. It is not surprising, therefore, been said to them that, barring certain excep- that many have taken them up, but many more tions, the signs of growth do not indicate that -and possibly the majority of them-have not. the cooperatives have finally found the road to A recent bit of evidence throws much light on health and prosperity. It is appropriate to quote the subject and it is worth recording. "Many the following sentence from the survey: "In- villagers said to me," writes an enthusiastic deed, it might not be wholly impermissible to reporter of the new changes afoot, "that they detect a certain degree of truth in a description were turning not only green with jealousy for we have come across of cooperative in this the big landlords and farmers but also red with country 'as a plant held in position with both anger against the stepmotherly treatment meted hands by government since its roots refuse to out to them.". This attitude is not an incen- enter the soil'." Fifteen years later the sheer weight of institutional credit argues against so 38. M. B. Lal, "Many-Splendoured March of pessimistic a view, but it cannot be overlooked Farm Revolution," Statesman (April 10, 1968). The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 429 tive for keener search of inputs, for the chan- known fact that more labor is used per unit of nels supposedly open to them are often blocked. cultivated area on small farms than on large According to the same reporter, a farmer, evi- farms. But above all, the proposition of all dently speaking for the multitude, had this to things being approximately equal assumes, say: "The big farmer gets fertilizer first and we among other factors, that the small farmer has have often to buy it from the black market. the resources or credit for the requisite inputs. He can get any amount of credit in time; we Since this is not within reach of the majority, have to wait and wait. Water and electricity it constitutes the crux of the matter when sub- are his for the asking. We never seem to get sistence farming is related to the new strategy them on time." After a swing through the or, more specifically, to cooperative credit. country the reporter concluded that "The in- The purpose behind this question raised tensity of the feeling varies but never the sub- previously is not so much to seek and immedi- stance of the complaint." He also leaves the ately find a solution as to stress its urgency. impression, supported by our own observation, Already the structure of land distribution as that in an atmosphere of rising expectations well as the distribution of assets in the rural engendered by the new technology, the com- areas is such as to make it extremely difficult plaints can no longer be neglected as in the for the poorer farmers to maintain their posi- times past. tion relative to the top farmers. The scales None of the above detracts from the obvi- would now be tilted still further against them. ous merits of the new strategy and its aims. Under such conditions the new technology The only thing in question is the short end of would be producing not only "kulak farmers" accommodations received by the majority of but also a crop of farmers no longer accepting the small farmers and some receiving none. their lot as something nature ordained. As And yet these farmers, largely engaged in sub- against this prospect, there is little in the con- sistence farming, constitute the central piece of templated plans of adding new sources of the environmental or socioeconomic setting of credit that holds out a promise to the com- the village. After all is said and not done about monality of farmers of reasonably priced credit this deeply rooted cause of cooperative diffi- in reasonable volume. What promise there is culties, a more direct assistance approach to lies not in future credit activities of the com- this group of farmers can no longer be delayed mercial banks, the existing land mortgage and for reasons of productivity rather than so- banks, or in the proposed Agricultural Devel- cial equity. opment Corporation to be financed by AID. All It is highly questionable if the caste system these are added props for the "strong" of the or the existing local leadership can be knocked farm community rather than for the "weak." on the head for at least a generation or more; That something is amiss in the policy of but it is possible to make a few-acre farms "everything for agricultural productivity" is more productive, a condition already attained gaining recognition. One can cite many a pub- by some of them. The evidence from the Indian lished comment to this effect, but the telling experience demonstrates that, not only are straw in the wind is that the sense of unease small farms productive in the sense that large about the policy has reached the highest level farms are; but "In respect to the ratio of out- of government. Jagjivan Ram, union minister put to paid input, the small farm turns out to of food and agriculture was reported (April be more productive than the large farm, and in 14) to be "worrying" about the new agricul- respect to output per acre, the small farms ap- tural strategy because it tends to create "a gap pear to be even more productive."3" This as- between farmer and farmer ... imbalanced and sumes, of course, that all things are being uneven development of the countryside" by approximately equal, in addition to the well- depriving small farmers of facilities that the rich agriculturists enjoyed. "The minister said," the report continued, "that his new approach 39. Bachman and Christensen, "The Economics would continue to be selective but would be of Farm Size," p. 246. The entire chapter bears on based on development of areas 'rather than on this point. the basis of individuals as hitherto'. This ap- 430 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 proach would cover both rich and small farmers tive credit or of any new instrumentality for alike." If the minister is to be taken at his word, purveying credit to small farmers in order to though he didn't spell out his approach, it is help them shift more of the resources for pur- obvious that to narrow the gap the subsistence poses other than self-consumption. And if it farmers surely need something of the assistance is true as the new strategy proclaims that the currently enjoyed by the "progressive" farmers. rich farmers cannot maximize production on If the cooperatives are to remain so largely the their own, how much truer this is in the case preserve of the latter group, a device or agency of subsistence farmers? If it is true, as indeed or a new approach must be created for that it is, that rich farmers treat cooperatives with specific purpose. The idea that not everything scant respect, using them for all they are worth, can be done at once on account of shortage of laggardism among subsistence farmers is more resources is not altogether valid, partly be- readily understandable and must be treated as cause most of the big institutional credit bene- another unpleasant fact of small-scale farming ficiaries can find credit outside the cooperatives, which could demonstrate its productivity ca- Moreover, the needs of the two groups are pacity on a wider scale, given the opportunity. quite distinct with emphasis on production This is in relation to the often heard argument credit in one instance and consumption or that they are not creditworthy or trustworthy. "household expenditures" on the other. This So possibly they are and so they will remain argues for a separate treatment and a separate until the initiation of a significant change in arrangement. But perhaps more to the point is the character of their existing economies. It the record of the Indian cooperative movement should be the business of government, there- which makes clear that the rich and poor fore, to spare some effort and some resources farmers cannot sup at the same cooperative to help break the circle of low productivity, table-or any table for that matter. indebtedness, and poverty among the multitude It is just possible that Mr. Ram's remarks of Indian farmers. are an augury of new developments; but, until From all this there emerges no neat a, b, c, d- it is known what they are, one cannot be so like scheme as to how the government should naive as to believe that Indian agricultural do this or that to help change the character of planners in the center, in the states, or the subsistence agriculture or how to recreate the cooperative leadership are prepared to single cooperatives into sounder institutions to meet out at this juncture subsistence farming as a the demands of the new technology. Nor is subject for special consideration. If they don't, there any intention to correct this seeming the answer to the problem is not in taccavi omission in these last few paragraphs. The loans, never a significant element in farm reader accustomed to a string of "recommenda- credit, or in the agricultural credit corporations tions" following a lengthy piece of paper is in which have so far failed to get off the ground. for a disappointment, but there are reasons for So long as the new agricultural strategy ex- this omission. The purpose of this exercise was cludes subsistence farming from its purview, mainly to explain the principal "whys" of the this type of agriculture will persist with no failure of recommendations to rehabilitate the benefit to farmers, cooperatives, or to the cooperatives and why small-scale agriculture is country as a whole. The preponderance of the entitled to a larger share of input-credit to costly private sources of credit and the weak- raise its productivity. Also, it would have been ness of the cooperative credit institutions in presumptuous on our part to do much more financing them are not just an accident, but a than that because cooperative leaders, farm part of the subsistence economy itself. officials, and academic students of the system We noted earlier that an undetermined have stated repeatedly what this is all about- number of small farmers have managed to including recommendations numerous enough benefit from the new inputs. It follows that to stretch from Delhi to Bombay. The prob- the idea that one must start from scratch lems of subsistence agriculture have not yet doesn't apply here. The task is one of widening been subjected to the same searching analysis the breach-if only on a selective area basis- as have the cooperative ailments, but this is an thereby strengthening the position of coopera- obstacle that can be overcome. India has the The New Agricultural Strategy and Institutional Factors 431 professional competence to analyze and pre- make themselves felt. In these circumstances scribe curative measures as well as to point the and at a time when political fragmentation is way to implementation. What the country at its most pronounced since independence, lacks is something else, and on this we shall the exercise of power in relation to the issues wind up this part of the paper. discussed is admittedly more circumscribed; India appears to be on the verge of signifi- and determination or political nerve, the most cant innovations in agriculture, but India is formidable engine of economic progress, is a far from prepared for the organizational, cul- rare commodity. This is as of now, but it is tural, social, and political changes that must not the end of the story. accompany the fullest realization of the tech- Lurking in the background is Gandhi's ad- nological changes. To move from unprepared- monition that "It should be the business of ness to preparedness presupposes a stable, every government of India to dry every tear progress-oriented government with power, rec- of every Indian eye." Grandiloquent and per- ognition of what the people want, and deter- haps too vague for some tastes, but this is the mination and professional competence for true, if overgeneralized, prescription for Indian sustained agricultural progress. When this ills. In a real sense Gandhi's dictum has not theory-reality is measured against India since lain dormant these many years-not in the eyes independence, the conclusion is that, while of those who remember the India of 1948 and much of it is in force, one vital element is know something about the India of 1968. But missing. India has a stable government, changes it may be taken for granted that no thoughtful in state governments notwithstanding, and and responsible Indian in or out of government India is progress oriented; the center and the would dispute that by far the hardest task of states have been exercising power; government reconciling gaping differences of wealth and knows that the people crave for a better living; power in the countryside still lies ahead. If it and India has a pool of professional competence is to be translated with reasonable success and which should be the envy of many other de- one hopes in an orderly fashion, willy-nilly veloping countries. What India lacks is the there can be no avoiding of "unceremonious crucial ingredient of will and determination vigor" or political determination. When that without which no reform can be carried out. day comes and on the assumption that the agri- The preference, therefore, is for action meeting cultural technology is being sustained, Indian- least resistance, which is to say, for a stance made recommendations and Indian forms of that eschews hard choices and avoids stepping implementation will be finding their marks in on a good many economic and political toes. evolving a better extension service, soundly This, more than the lack of resources, tells a managed credit cooperatives, more meaningful good deal about the cow question, the state of agrarian reform programs, village panchayats land revenue, grain procurement, extension which are developmental not in name only, service, cooperatives, subsistence farming, the and much else besides. doldrums of the agrarian reforms, and the con- Admittedly, concrete action with regard to dition of the panchayats. Generally speaking, it any of these spells a lot of unpleasantness for explains why recommendations and realization the politicians of the union and state govern- so often diverge. ments. India is no exception in this respect, So much of what is being said involves pain- but neither in India nor elsewhere can this ful breaks with customary attitude and beliefs, stand in the way much longer of meeting eco- ways of living, doing things, and profitmaking. nomic and social necessities. One can think of They are painful in any society when shifts in no better overall prescription than the merger privileges are the order of the day. They are of India's existing technical skills with a strong particularly so in agrarian India, which over dash of political discipline. In this combination many millennia has created so stratified a so- lies the key to much that needs to be done, and ciety along economic, social, and religious lines only then will the "should be dones" acquire that the winds of change are only beginning to a significance so largely lacking now. 432 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 50. Punjab Field Trip Late in February 1969 Ladejinsky made a brief field trip in the Punjab, the heartland of the Green Revolution. This piece, dated April 2, reports his observations on the progress, characteristics, and consequences of the Green Revolution in its early phases. The article, later published in the Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay) on June 28, 1969, was widely noted. Amid the euphoria created by spectacular production increases, it called attention to the other side of the coin-soaring land values and rents, tenant exploitation and displacement, and growing inequalities of income. When published in the Economic and Political Weekly, the title was changed to "Green Revolution in Punjab-A Field Trip." This article was subsequently reprinted by the Agriculture Development Council, Inc. of New York in June 1976. Introduction than the record crop of 3.4 million tons in 1967-68. Two developments explain this. The THE WRITER OF THIS NOTE visited Punjab be- first is an increase in the wheat acreage caused tween February 23 and 29 for the purpose of by a sharp fall of potato prices and the conse- observing the conditions of the wheat crop, quent conversion of a considerable part of this farm profitability, procurement prices, land acreage to wheat. The second and more im- values, land rents, and the effect of the new portant explanation is the continued upsurge of technology on the absorption or employment of the new technology, as evidenced by the fol- the rural landless. Time being very short, we lowing figures. In 1966-67 the high-yielding avoided local officials and spent no time col- varieties covered 4 percent of the wheat acre- lecting official statistics. Instead, the subsequent age, the year following 35 percent; in 1968-69 paragraphs are based on contacts with farmers the estimated coverage is 60 percent. This will in the field or in villages. The sample is not more than compensate for the potential loss overly large and no claim is made for un- attributed to low precipitation. challenged accuracy of the conclusions, par- One of the outstanding impressions carried ticularly in regard to the last point. Neverthe- away from talks with farmers who fully less, we believe that the pattern which emerges adopted the new package of practices is not so reflects a set of existing conditions. much the increase in wheat yields from 16 to 36 maunds' per acre (average for Ludhiana) or 50 to 60 maunds on many individual farms, but that they have pretty much reached a Productivity, Prosperity, and Polarization plateau or, as one of them expressed it, a state of "stagnation." Mr. Singh, one of the most Rainfall in the Punjab has not been as plenti- successful farmers of Ludhiana district, thought ful, or as ideally spaced as a year ago. The that the stepping up of investment from the saving feature are the tube wells which dot the current Rs200 to 250 per acre would be fields as far as the eye can see; but even their counterproductive unless new varieties are de- owners are as one that they, too, will be ad- veloped with a capacity to sustain larger ap- versely affected to the extent of 5 to 10 per- cent decline in yields per acre. Yet, preliminary estimates point to a considerably greater output 1. One maund equals 82.5 pounds. Punjab Field Trip 433 plications of fertilizer. He and his opposite management, no reference is made to taxation. numbers look forward to a new "miracle" This is not an oversight. With a land tax of variety, commonly referred to by them as the Rs2 or so per acre and no income tax, the 'triple dwarf." Wheat breeders are rather skep- omission is understandable. As with this farmer, tical about its potential yielding capacity, and so with the rest. A farmer richer still told us the prospects just ahead may prove disappoint- that he had written to the state government ing to the eager innovators. They will have suggesting a scheme of progressive taxation. to be satisfied with what has been attained; Such a rara avis we haven't encountered before and this, as we shall point out, should not be or since, and we still wonder whether he sought hard to take. release from a surfeit of tax-free money or was The farmer in question has sixty acres of merely pulling the leg of an inquisitive visitor. tube-well-irrigated land and all the modern The fact is that the well-being of Punjab is equipment a highly successful owner operator made possible to a considerable degree by an can acquire in present-day India. His principal elaborate infrastructure in the form of irriga- crop is wheat and he manages to double crop tion projects, power development, agricultural all his land with subsidiary crops, although the research, and seed development involving large intensity of cultivation for Punjab as a whole amounts of state and center expenditures. And is 135 percent. The rate of utilization of high- yet the principal beneficiaries are virtually in- yielding varieties on his farm is worth record- nocent of taxation to sustain the ever-rising ing and it is as follows: 5 percent of the acre- revenue needs of the donors. What can be said age in 1965-66, 30 percent in 1966-67, 65 for Punjab is that it represents only another percent in 1967-68, and 85 percent in 1968- instance of practically no direct taxation typi- 69. There will be no complete coverage unless cal of all the states of India. Clearly, the much a variety is developed with color and taste to fought over "no taxation without representa- suit the consumption preference of the pro- tion" doesn't apply in rural India in general or ducers. Mr. Singh is one of the rare farmers in Punjab in particular. The well-off farmers among even the large holders who keeps de- are so heavily represented in state legislatures tailed accounts of all his operations and has no that the historic adage has been reversed to reluctance to exhibit them. Every conceivable read "no taxation despite representation." item relating to the cost of production is there, Aside from looking forward to a still more including amortization of everything that is productive new wheat variety and the com- amortizable, and not excluding food for seven- plaint about the absence of combines to expe- teen members of his family, three permanent dite the harvest, Mr. Singh's one immediate workers, and food for fifteen to twenty daily concern is a new weed, almost indistinguishable laborers during the peak of the season. The last from the wheat, which has infested his fields item, return to management, sums up the this year-and grows as fast as it is being 1967-68 season: It shows a net income of pulled out. He looks upon it as a not unex- Rs1,600 per acre. The figure is made up of pected side effect of new varieties. So far the sales of seed which commands a price of Rsl80 weed disease is not common and the geneticists per quintal as against Rs75 for ordinary grain. of Punjab University have been alerted to it. But had he devoted all his land to grain only, What concerns them more is the shape of his net income per double-cropped acre would wheat prices now that the harvesting season is have amounted to Rs800 to 1,000. The extra within sight. He and other progressive farmers profit from seed production will come to an know that the total wheat output and market- end in another year or two, for too many able surplus will be larger than last year and farmers, he explained to us, are engaging in the chances of a drop in price, whether offi- seed multiplication on their own. On the whole, cially procured or not, are real. Coupled with it was clear that he and many like him-even this is the uncertainty about the size of the if with much smaller acreage-have taken ad- buffer stock and therefore the volume of the vantage of the new technology and profited surplus the central government will be willing accordingly. to procure. At the same time, there is the feel- In calculating his net income or return to ing that regardless of the procurement prices 434 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 and quota fixed in Delhi, their state govern- do mar the picture of achievement and content- ment will riot let them down on both scores. ment in India's premier state of rural develop- As to the procurement price, they would like ment. RsO0 per quintal; they know this is out of the question and will be content with last year's price of Rs75 per quintal. If so, they Land Values, Land Rents, and Tenancy will market their surplus with even greater alacrity than in the 1967-68 season. Land values in Punjab have been rising over All in all, one is impressed with the sturdy, the years, but it is the steady penetration of self-confident, purposeful, innovation-minded the Green Revolution that has pushed them group of farmers who in a short span of years up to new peaks. There is not enough land have succeeded in translating promise into changing hands to turn Punjab into a boom reality. So much so in fact that an occasional and bust real estate operation; but, concerning thuhrr .sgto cae andbutleaienaepertin;bu,aoner-n though rare sight of a camel pulling a tradi- what little is being bought and sold, the farm- tional plow or the more frequent sight of a ers' refrain is the same: Today's land prices Persian wheel doing its rounds appear as are going to be higher tomorrow. Land sold anachronisms from a bygone age. Despite these five years ago at Rs2,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 apparitions, what is immediately striking is per acre sells presently at Rs10,000 or 12,000 that for the owner class of 10 to 20 and more or 15,000 per acre. Instances are not lacking of irrigated acres of land, making money is a new prices doubling within the last two years. way of life. The process of self-enrichment is Farmland close to a highway is particularly there for all to see; and, for those who re- high; but any owner of productive land, re- member the rural Punjab of Malcolm Darling's gardless of its location, is in a sellers' market. classic, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and The profitability of farming explains it and Debt, observing the more recent changes is with it the changing attitude of using savings an exhilarating experience. We are not re- and making investments with an eye to the ferring to the big farmers only. The cultivator main chance. This doesn't mean that traditional in mind with nine owned acres of land, a investments are obsolete. In the debate on the tube well of his own, a ripening thick stand of union budget, Morarji Desai is reported to wheat promising an abundant crop, and no have said that some rich farmers buy gold debts and no borrowing-so he assured us-is 'not by the tola2 but the pounds."' This au- the more telling symbol of what the Green thoritative source is not disputed; but it is Revolution stands for than the kulak of 50 equally true that the major investments go into acres who struck it very rich indeed. Webster the re-equipment of the existing holding to fit defines a peasant as one "tilling the soil as the current phase of agricultural innovations small landowner or as laborer . . . a person of and into land acquisition, if such is for sale. low social status especially when comparatively This, as one farmer put it, is the "real gold" uneducated and uncouth." Neither in appear- and the source of security. Hence the tempta- ance nor speech nor judging by the transforma- tion of the well-off farmers to invest in more tion of his nine acres is he any longer a peas- land that successful farming and tax-free in- ant, and this is one of the attributes of the come can buy. What has given land transac- Green Revolution. But lest one wax too lyrical, tions a risky speculative tinge here and there it is well to remember that the growing polari- is the appearance on the scene of "gentlemen zation in agriculture between the rich and the farmers." They are mostly urbanites who know poor is also an integral part of the Punjab little or nothing about farming but have a great scene. Part of this story is told in a latter sec- deal of "unemployed" rupees, mostly acquired tion of this note, and it suffices merely to men- through undeclared earnings. They look upon tion here that the welcome drive for produc- investment in agriculture as a means of legal- tivity and betterment doesn't obscure the fact that there remain the small farmers, the ten- 2. One tola equals 11.5 grams. ants, and the landless agricultural workers who 3. Hindustan Times (March 21, 1969). Punjab Field Trip 435 izing illegal resources; as a tax haven, which it cently (1964), it appears that the number is; and as a source of earning tax-free supple- of tenants who were holding land at the mentary incomes. In the circumstances, land commencement of the Act and are still hold- prices are of no great moment to them. They ing land as tenants is 80,250. It seems diffi- 'are unfair competitors in a limited land market, cult to account for the large difference be- and there is no love lost between the would-be tween these two figures.' farmers and the genuine farmers, with the latters prdctig that tie formers, wi cme t Actually the difficulty is not very great; it is an latter predicting that the former will come to opnscetathedfrnebtwn58,0 grief. In the meantime land values are going sce thahel d e btwen 583,40 up and up and evidently with little thought as an 050is largely due to out-and-our eject- up ad u an evienty wth ittl thugh as menits or the transfer of tenants to the status to whether productivity and prices will sus- ifentsrorothersfr ofctna tote S tam hem,of sharecroppers or agricultural laborers. So Fronthem. r nmuch for the background and tenancy condi- Frmrsn advlest h nacmn tions accelerated by the so-called reform of the of rents is hardly a stone's throw. But this in tionsialertede itself is not the whole story, and a bit of back- tenurial system. The new technology mn Punjab has demon- ground is in order. Prior to the enactment of te new te y inaPuna ha de the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act of strared how very profitable farming can be; the unjb Scuriy o Lad Teure Ac of and, coupled with high land values with the 1953,4 rentals paid by the estimated nearly ance witigh landtve wt te abseneoanefetv,rsrciernmes 583,000 tenants and owner tenants or tenant nce o.a e restrictive rent mas owners was roughly 50 percent of the gross trs h padrvso fln et a ownes ws rughl 50perent f te goss inevitable. And so it is, rents having moved crop, with the owner contributing little to the inevia An so it sres h oved making of the crop. The act provided for a from a 50 to a 70 percent share of the crop, or maximum rental not exceeding one-third of rom s to csh. pacrwhere teat- the crop. But this provision, like security of r.age tisin chan er anden tenure, ceilings on holdings, and so forth, has readily testified to this change. Considering been so emasculated that the very title of the that a good acre of irrigated wheat land on a act is one of the misnomers of the agrarian well managed farm yields now 35 to 40 or agraian more imaunds, in theory the tenant should re- reforms of India. The result was twofold: large- .more maunds er ace than whn he scale ejection of tenants by owners on the e ground of land resumption for self-cultivation paying 50 percent of the crop. This presup- and the persistence of traditional rental ar- poses, however, that he uses the fill package rangements on the remaining tenanted hold- of inputs in a manner applied by the innovating Cultivators. Owner farmers with sizable hold- ings. No data on ejections are available, but the ivao Owne fam e ih sibl ho following tells something of their magnitude, ings who also lease in land are in a position to thlog tel dataoaetprob on theiraoim- u do just that. On the other hand, interviews with though the data are probably only approxii-na- pure" tenants do not lead to the same conclu- tions. Thus we read: sion. For them, sharing the crop on a 70-30 The law regarding security of tenure ap- basis is not a boon. Rising rents in consequence pears to be on the whole somewhat illusory. of rising land values may be an economically This is supported by the fact that the num- valid and unavoidable process but a hardship ber of tenants in existence in the Punjab nevertheless for those who cannot extract from area at the time when the Punjab Security the land a return large enough to meet living of Land Tenure Act was amended in 1955 requirements over and above the rental obliga- has greatly decreased. From the information tions and inputs which must be largely their supplied by the State Government on March own. 30, 1955, it appears that the total number Finally, some tenants receive the short end of tenants including tenants-cum-owners of the stick because of the familiar owners' was 583,400 . . . From the information fears of claims to occupancy right. This was supplied by the Punjab Government re- apparent in the case of an owner of 50 lush 4. Punjab then included what is now the state 5. Planning Commission, Implementation of of Haryana. Lan- Reforms (New Delhi, August 1966), p. 116. 436 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 acres under vegetables on the outskirts of marketing, and food processing. All these are Ludhiana city. His is a showcase with five to six more labor demanding on primary, secondary, crops to the acre, an operation of which the and tertiary levels and therefore the prevailing most skillful Chinese or Japanese farmer would belief that the new farm practices would re- approve. In addition to his own land, he leases lieve the acute problem of underemployment. 20 acres under wheat but, as he explained to us, in rural areas-and even beyond. The very not on the 70-30 basis. He farms his land on same practices, however, also give rise to such something less than the traditional rent be- labor-saving devices as tractors, rotary ploughs, cause he is creditworthy; because the lessor harrows, and tillers to go with them, electrically- knows that he can get the land back any season operated tube wells, sprayers, and threshers- he wants to; and because he doesn't want to to mention only modern equipment already deal with ordinary run-of-the-mill tenants lest present on some Indian farms and particularly they make claims to rights in the land, even in the Punjab. So far, in discussions relating to if they be only imaginary rights. Our "tenant" the Green Revolution, the stress is on its labor- in turn sublets the land to real tenants, provid- requiring aspects while giving little play to the ing at the same time all the equipment and widespread experience of other countries that inputs. When the crop is in, he deducts, in as agricultural technology grows in sophistica- kind, all the costs connected with producing it, tion it leads to less employment of labor. The the remainder being shared 70-30. The answer probable reasons for current emphasis on the to the question as to what the 30 percent share one as against the other are the early stage of meant to the tenants in terms of produce or the package of practices and the prevalence of cash did not come through. What did come the small-sized holding in India. But be that through wvas this: "If my 'partners'," as he as it may, it is not our intention to argue the called them, "don't like my terms, I can always point of more or less employment at this or find others to take their place." Here he spoke that juncture of technological development but the truth. Official information speaks of only to record our observations of the current rural one-seventh the number of tenants Punjab had labor situation in Punjab and to draw some a decade and a half ago when they cultivated tentative conclusions. Before we touch upon approximately one-fifth of the cultivated land. this, it is well to begin with the prevailing It says nothing about the displaced or about farm wages. the tenants now disguised as sharecroppers or agricultural workers, mostly the latter. In the field this becomes clear, though it cannot be Wage Scales and Duration measured statistically. This is why the big of Employment owner "tenant" knew what he was talking about when he said there was no lack of others We have inquired into this matter on every willing to become his "partners." possible occasion, and from the testimony of The sample relating to rents and tenancy employers and employees it is clear that daily was not large enough to assert without equivo- farm wages in the past five years or so have cation that the conditions described hold good moved up from Rs2 to 3 to Rs4 to 5. In both* for all of the Punjab, but the consistency of instances one must add the food and tea pro- what we observed in the districts of Ludhiana vided by the employers, which bears a cost of and Jullundur leads us to the conclusion that it about Rs2. There are significant exceptions. may well be fairly representative. On two occasions in the district of Jullundur, more typically agricultural than Ludhiana, re- ported cash wages were as low as Rs 3 to 3.50. New Technology and Employment On the other hand, in the very crucial harvest season, wages may go up as much as Rs2, mak- The new technology is characterized by fre- ing a total daily wage for a period of a month quent application of water; fertilizer; insecti- of Rs7 to 8 a day-not counting the food por- cides and weeding; double cropping; bigger tion. Permanently employed laborers are not crops; and a larger volume of transportation, doing as well. Their monthly wage is around Punjab Field Trip 437 Rsl0O to 110, exclusive of food. Their advan- is often heard in various circles? With regard tage lies in the year-round employment. Re- to the first question, the estimate ranges from ports gathered in Delhi that wages have shot 150 days per year to a high of 180 days. If it up to RslO to 15 and more a day are without is the latter, it would appear that they are em- 'foundation. The same applies to industrial ployed from 30 to 40 days more than was wages. As a check against our information from customary in the past. Any such estimates are farm sources, we sampled a few industrial un- only rough approximations, because, surprising dertakings employing thirty to fifty laborers. though it may seem, by and large neither ,Aside from the important consideration that among the employers nor among the employees the labor there is on a more or less permanent is there anything like a consensus on just how basis, wages are not as high as in agriculture. many days they do work on the farm. The The Texan Industries of the small Goraya City progressive farmer already referred to with (Jullundur district) produces axles for cars, sixty owned double-cropped acres has a clearer employs forty workers, and draws upon labor idea on the subject. With tractors and other from the surrounding rural communities. Un- labor-saving devices, he economizes on labor; skilled labor is paid Rs3 per day, graduating but this is more than offset by double cropping, to Rs6 for the most skilled-and no food is weeding, and his eagerness to harvest the crops offered as part of the wage arrangement. Simi- as quickly as possible to avoid shattering of a larly in two other enterprises of about the bumper crop and to expedite its threshing be- same size. In all these wages have gone up fore the rains set in. The upshot is that he somewhat, but the real explanation why they employs, depending upon the season, from 10 lag behind farm wages is the availability of to 20 percent more laborers, in addition to the labor throughout most of the year. The owner three permanent ones he normally employs. of Texan Industries, who prides himself on As to the question whether the new farm his trademark "Texan," looks like a Texan and practices have given rise to labor shortages, thinks that in his free and easy manner he is our answer is that they have not. To an owner a transplanted Texan, recounted for our benefit increased demand for labor and higher wages his daily experience of refusing employment to may appear as conditions resulting from a labor people looking for jobs. An encounter with a shortage, but when pressed for specifics they large group of landless laborers digging up know better. The big farmer near Ludhiana sand and gravel and carting it to the railway city, who employs at any given time fifty to tracks revealed wages that compared well with sixty casual laborers to keep his factory-like those of unskilled labor in industry. Their pay vegetable farm going, went so far as to say that for heavy labor, closely supervised by four 30 to 40 percent of Punjab's labor is imported straw bosses, was Rs3.50 compared with Rs2.50 from Uttar Pradesh. It is possible that this is about two years ago. the case in border areas, albeit on a smaller With reference to the farm labor situation scale; but upon closer examination neither he in the areas visited, the conclusion is that, with nor any other owner could furnish any evidence the spread of the new technology, the demand in support of the statement. In his own case not for labor has increased and that the increase in only does he import no labor, but he manages wages is partly a reflection of that demand and to secure some Punjabi for a song; a group of partly a reflection of the steady rise in the cost women we watched preparing cauliflowers for of living during the five-year period. The net the market received nothing more than the gain in monetary terms over and beyond the discarded leaves, used by them as fodder for increased cost of living cannot be very large. their animals. Getting something for nothing Even if it is a rupee or two, it is not as impor- in the very environs of the bustling with ac- tant as the answer to these two questions: tivity, fast-growing, commercial and industrial How much greater is the demand for farm city of Ludhiana is indeed an entrepreneurial labor or, more particularly, how many more feat. It is doubtful, however, if this particular days are they employed on the farm now com- sense of achievement would have been his if pared with the pre-Green Revolution days; and he had to contend with a critical supply of is there a shortage of farm labor in Punjab, as casual labor. In short, in answer to the much- 438 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 repeated question, "Do you experience a labor when the process of mechanization moves into shortage?" the replies have been in the nega- a higher stage and becomes as irreversible as tive. Our sample being rather small, we the Green Revolution which fathered its current wouldn't swear on the Bible that this is typical stage? The question is raised to highlight some of Punjab without exception, but according to of the thinking among the very successful our information no field has remained unat- farmers. tended even during the harvesting season due If this development comes to pass, the de- to lack of labor. The same is true of industrial mand for farm labor in Punjab would in- labor in Punjab's numerous small-scale indus- evitably go into a sharp decline, even if the tries, which all depend upon its supply from overall growth of the population were arrested the rural communities. In the light of this, the at the present level and even if the same ap- .much talked about labor shortage supposedly plied to the tendency of rounding out the created by the new technology essentially bigger holdings at the expense of the very stands for a greater demand for labor, particu- small and uneconomic ones. Since neither is larly during harvesting, and hence the higher likely, especially the first, Punjab will be faced wages caused in part only by this condition. with the problem of what to do with a rising army of rural underemployed and all its conse- quences. There is firm ground for this asser- Employment Prospects tion. The leading farm innovators of the state are no longer satisfied with the equipment they It is apparent from the foregoing that, at this , although admittedly it represents a great stage of Punjab's rural development, the de- advance over hat they had not many years mand for casual labor has increased despite its ago. To be sure, they are not given to the 14,000 tractors" and many more of threshers. flights of fancy of a farmer we know who culti- By virtue of this alone, the agricultural laborer vates 300 acres of irrigated wheat land. Not is somewhat better off, and particularly in a ten years ago he was in the bullock stage. Pres- state where agricultural technology is spread- ently there is nor a single bullock on his big . . .spread; and the seven tractors (two of them ing alongside numerous small industrial estab- s lishments creating their own demand for labor. spares), the rest of the equipment to match, the eleven tube wells, and practically no taxes One cannot gainsay the importance of this enbehmtntRs,0prac.Foely combination on top of the demand generated .nbl hi ontR100pra. Fomry combnaton n to ofthedemad gnerted he single cropped 50 acres with the aid of by the very prosperous farmers and nonfarmers te wokerow he doe crop 250 acres for mplymet ohertha sticty aricltual. twelve workers; now he double crops 250 acres for employment other than strictly agricultural, with the aid of nearly a hundred workers. As against this, it should be noted that even in the present-day Punjab there is a sufficiently Keeping his vast irrigation network shipshape thepreentdayPunab her isa sffiienly absorbs a good deal of the labor. He thinks large reserve of labor, the supply of which be- g. , he can better himself, and he is in search of comes "critical" only during a period of a the c ter lbrsan deis. Ase f month or two at most. Underemployment still exists, although facts and figures are difficult looking around for the conventional yet more exsts, efficient tractors and specialized implements, to come by. Whatever they are now, this ob- .. server left Punjab with the strong impression his thoughts about the future of his farm are that underemployment there is bound to grow touching the science fiction stage. He dreams thatundrempoymnt hereis oundto row of the day induced by an article in a Soviet apace. This melancholy thought would jar y, y some observers who have all but concluded magazine, when he will perch atop a tower and that the casual worker has been well taken guide the work of his tractors by remote con- trol. Practical, rich, and restless farmer that he care of. And yet it is nor a matter of pessimism i,h ett h rul n xes feet versus optimism when this question is posed: . . . What of the furture for the landless workers ing strategically located utility poles as a pre- liminary step on the road to his magic tower. Useless to him now, they stand there, thirty 6. The total number of tractors in all of India is feet high, just in case the dream comes true. estimated at 70,000 to 90,000. Most well-to-do Punjab farmers are more Punjab Field Trip 439 modest in their expectations, but economy of tices, which in turn depend upon more efficient, operations and returns are uppermost in their labor-saving equipment. Much of this wouldn't minds. Not surprisingly, they would like more apply in anything like the same measure to the modern and more powerful tractors and spe- principal rice areas of India, and the "whys" *cialized equipment to go with them, and some need not detain us here. But talking about would like to exchange their crudely made and Punjab and keeping in mind most of the north- none-too-efficient threshers for a variety of a ern wheat belt of India, a reversal of the cur- combine that would harvest, thresh, fill, and rent demand for more employment created by tie the sacks ready for shipment. This is not the present stage of the new technology is in- universal, but the desire is there. If this is evitable. This development is not around the realizable in the Punjab, there would come into corner just yet, but it is in the making all the being the modern agricultural version of the same. "trinity"-the tractor, the combine, and electric power-which in other countries has displaced hired labor to a vanishing point. Precisely the Summary same is not going to happen on the irrigated lands of Punjab with its demand for hand labor Such are the findings of a brief trip through compared with what did happen in the dry two of the principal districts of Punjab. For farming areas of the United States and in other reasons pointed out in the first paragraph, we countries. But the difference is only one of recognize that the random sampling carried degree; and labor elimination, particularly out on the fly and hastily jotted-down bits of during the peak seasons, is bound to take place. information are a method that could be im- Discussions among the watchers of the proved upon. We recognize, too, that loquaci- Green Revolution as to whether government ous as a farmer can be about matters that touch policy could or should retard the rate of mecha- him most, not everything he shares is neces- nization is academic, certainly for the present. sarily all he cares to share; nor for that matter According to A. P. Shinde, union minister of does everything he says filter down through state for food and agriculture, the government the interpreter in a manner that leaves nothing has decided to meet some of the shortage of to be desired. And this is true of the many- agricultural implements by importing during sided Mr. Sharma, one of the (World] Bank the current financial year 15,000 tractors, 4,000 office drivers who manfully doubled in brass on power tillers, 10,000 discs, 75 combines, and a this as on another occasion. number of other items. Additionally, firms are With these caveats out of the way, we be- being licensed for the manufacture. of power lieve that the topics dealt with and the con- tillers.' The numbers may not seem large in clusions drawn could stand the test of more view of the pent-up demand, but the move is rigorous field observations. Meanwhile, in sum- clearly in the direction of intensifying mecha- mary, the conclusions are as follows: The pres- nization. The advocates of a "go-slow" policy ence of the Green Revolution is very much in may not have had the last word; but one would evidence-and so are its consequences; Punjab's be bold to predict that, in a contest-if it crop prospects are better than ever, and pro- should come to that-between the further re- curement prices are likely to be sustained. finement of technology on the one hand and Owner farmers with irrigated land are making social policy on the other, the latter would win. money hand over fist; and the bigger the farm, Moreover, as development feeds upon develop- the more they make. Of the "burden" of taxa- ment, so labor-saving devices feed upon the tion, there is none to speak of. Land values are preceding generation of the same. Freezing the spiraling; land rents are going up; and the level of mechanization can no more be con- condition of the tenants is not better-if not templated than freezing any of the new prac- worse. The demand for casual labor has in- creased and so have wages, and the landless laborer is somewhat better off than in the past. 7. The Economic Times (March 29, 1969) and For the moment there appears to be no short- The Indian Express (March 29, 1969). age of labor in agriculture or industry, but our 440 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 contention that Punjab imports no labor from There are, to begin with, an awful lot of them Uttar Pradesh could stand closer scrutiny and and, numerically speaking, Punjab is no differ- we intend to re-examine this point at an early ent from any other state of India. According opportunity. Underemployment has not been to a combination of data relating to 1955 and eliminated, except at the peak seasons; with 1961, farmers operating holdings less than 7.5 the further sophistication of mechanization, acres accounted for roughly 73 percent of the Punjab will be confronted with an ever-rising total number of farm households and just as number of underemployed. This is not about roughly for 20 percent of the land. We barely to take place, but the prospects are there never- sampled them, but we assume that their con- theless. One more conclusion is to be noted, and dition is better than the generality of their it deserves separate treatment. counterparts in dry areas or in areas where Regardless of whether an observer probes irrigation opportunities are not as favorable deeply or ever so lightly into the Punjab scene, as in Punjab. But in relation to the growing the signal impression he is bound to carry gap in income distribution or levels of living, away is one of the air of prosperity that per- the situation is not as reassuring as it might meates the state. Those bent on measuring appear when one looks at the innovation in- everything quantitatively can feast on the 60 dexes of Punjab. According to an estimate by percent coverage of wheat land with high- one of the keenest students of the new agri- yielding varieties, the doubling of yields per cultural strategy, not more than 10 percent of unit of land, the five- to sixfold increase in the 73 percent of the small farmers are in one fertilizer consumption between 1962-63 and way or another involved in the innovation 1967-68, the 45,000 tube wells, the steady in- process. The explanation is not in a lack of crease in the number of tractors, the waiting interest to partake of it but in the restraints list of would-be tractor purchasers that stretches imposed by the lack of resources and the failure from here to there, the 5,000 threshers re- of the cooperative credit system to help them portedly sold this past year, and so forth. This breach this formidable barrier to any significant and much else not statistically measurable al- degree. How badly small farmers fare at the ready remarked on elsewhere testify to Punjab's hands of the credit cooperatives has already rural muscle. All this is true, but it is not with- been described.' The rising voices in favor of out a fly in the ointment. Growth and pros- supplying small farmers with more credit may perity cannot hide the fact that the new agri- eventually lead to a desirable change, but in cultural policy which has done a yeoman's the meantime it can be said that even in the job in generating them is also the indirect up-and-coming Punjab inadequate participation cause of a widening of the gap between the in the new technology is another sign of the rich and the poor. Precisely because the Green increasing economic polarization. Revolution has found its widest application in Neither self-enrichment-a very encourag- Punjab, the probability is that, relatively speak- ing development in itself-nor the less prom- ing, the gap is greater there than in any other ising outcroppings rooted in the peculiarly part of rural India. The assumption that the Indian rural conditions are arguments against lot of the landless worker has undergone a the new technology or the urgency to strengthen change for the better because he earns Rs2 a it in every possible way. There is a need to day more or is employed a few weeks more is expand its coverage in order not only to nar- correct, but it doesn't measure up against the row disparities in income but also to curb the well-to-do farmers who are better off still and sociopolitical manifestations of the rural afflu- that rich farmers are getting very much richer. ent, which often tend to thwart the develop- Nor can one leave out of account the rising mental process through their influence in state insecurity of tenants, reduced in number though they are, and that the overall condi- Sm of tnant an shaecroper areanyting 8. Delhi Office, "A Note on Small Farmers" tions of tenants and sharecroppers are anything (February 13, 1969); "A Note on Distributional but improving. Problems" (March 15, 1969); and "The New Agri- Punjab is not without its small farmers and cultural Strategy and Institutional Factors" (particu- some of the problems this category entails. larly the section on rural cooperative credit) (1968). Punjab Field Trip 441 legislatures and Parliament as well. Cases in the remarkable property of being powerful point are the scrapping of land revenue in instruments of change and mutually self- several states, the resistance to the introduction reinforcing. This may sound "old hat" in a of fair rates for irrigation and power, the oppo- highly developed country, but it is a novel and sition to raising land tax rates which are totally most important tool among large groups of out of line with mounting land prices, produc- Indian farmers, particularly when the outlet tivity and agricultural prices, and the general for new aspirations is helped along. Helping refusal to consider a revision of rural taxation it along is the issue not only in Punjab but in in consonance with the changing conditions in backward Bihar as well, where we recently agriculture. For all of this and much else al- visited. What with a level of literacy not more ready noted, no government can accept the than 15 percent and other problems piled upon existing situation overly long even if it be de- problems, Bihar is not Punjab; but there, too, fended on the ground that in certain circum- not many farmers still need to be persuaded stances this is the price or penalty an early that the new technology is good for them. But stage of economic growth exacts. It is there- what is in inadequate supply are the "outlets," fore a welcome sign that the growing gap in except for the relatively few. In this regard income distribution in the countryside and its the two states are not altogether dissimilar, al- disturbing political connotations are becoming though in most other vital characteristics they subjects of increasing concern on the part of are poles apart. The moral of it all for Punjab the union government of India. Without de- (as of Bihar) is this: If India is to take full tailing the move to do something about it' or advantage of the sharply awakened anticipa- the plethora of statements to the same effect, tions for betterment among all manner of the aim is not to circumscribe the scope of the farmers, it is time to re-examine the current new technology but to extend it beyond its agricultural strategy and chart its course for present unstated but nevertheless real limits. the years immediately ahead. The same goes for Punjab. Despite the state's This may well be provided by the All-India innovative character, the unquestioned progress Agricultural Commission about to be created. it enjoys, and the still brighter promise it holds, While all its terms of reference have not yet there are chinks in the armor of Punjab's pros- been spelled out, according to Jagjivan Ram, perity. Not to take notice of them would be to the union minister of food and agriculture, the overlook some of the significant, if indirect, commission "would examine the present condi- consequences of the Green Revolution. tions of agriculture and rural economy and As already indicated, these consequences formulate directions under which the infra- can be dealt with, although not in terms of final structure for agriculture should be developed solutions. The scope of the new technology can to keep up the tempo of growth." Expanding be widened, especially if the bias against insti- on the theme, the minister noted that the time tutional change gives way to recognition of the had come "to take steps for all-round develop- interdependence between technology and socio- ment of the agricultural economy" and not only in areas "of relatively larger production poten- economic reform. Cutting across all these con- .in he sa .vein asghisprercto te tial." In the same vemn was his reference to the siderations is the highly significant factor that "imbalances" between small and big farmers. Indian agriculture is increasingly amenable to in his view these had existed for a long time, renewal because a rising number of farmers but "they had been accentuated by the intensive wish it that way. The potentials of this mental agricultural strategy followed over the past few attitude, even if not often supported by re- years." Whether the "imbalances" examined by sources to bridge the gap between desire and the commission will cover the whole gamut of fulfillment, cannot be overstated. It derives problems touched upon in this paper and from the proposition that, at long last, in India whether the prescriptions and their imple- too it is being demonstrated that ideas have mentation will culminate in more widespread increases in production, better income distribu- tion, and peace in the countryside cannot be 9. See Delhi Office, "A Note on Small Farmers." foretold at the moment. The stresses and strains 442 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 generated by the contending rural economic can only express the hope and the wish that and political interests will undoubtedly cast the agricultural commission will see fit to deal their shadow on the ultimate results of the with all the pertinent issues as an integral part contemplated effort. In the circumstances, one of the future development of Indian agriculture. 51. Bihar Field Trip If the Punjab field trip was a vivid sketch of the advent and early effects of the Green Revolution, this paper on Bihar is a full-blown portrait of the same, in a state noted for tenurial relations so exploitative that frequent and bloody outbursts in the countryside have been common. Ladejinsky points up these conditions when he digs up and exposes an official state government instruction calling for the sabotage by field officers of tenurial rights legislation. The picture presented is an extremely dour one. But "All said and done, it is not the fault of the new technology that the credit service doesn't serve those for whom it was originally intended; that the extension service exists largely in name only; that tenurial legislation is deliberately miscarried; or that wage scales are hardly sufficient to keep body and soul together. All these are primarily man-made iniquities which, if corrected, could fuse a measure of economic or social justice with economic necessity, thereby adding another essential dimension to the Green Revolution." This is a powerful and moving piece. This paper, dated July 29, 1969, was based on a field trip made in late April. It was later published by the Economic and Political lYeekly (Bombay), September 27, 1969, under the title "Green Revolution in Bihar-The Kosi Area." The article was reprinted by the Agricultural Development Council, Inc. of New York in June 1976. Introduction under the threat of agrarian reforms and the growing insecurity of the sharecroppers as the IN LATE APRIL OF THIS YEAR the writer of this potential of the Kosi irrigation scheme rises; and finally, though wages have improved, the note visited Purnea and Saharsa districts of adfnly huhwgshv mrvd h noter vsited Pureaw and paarscuarditrs o large and rising contingent of landless still re- Bihar state. The two, and particularly Purnea, cev. h hr n fteeooi tc.W are well known for two reasons. The first stems .ein thse oble w itho tiegle from the fact that the two districts fall within l i . Bihar's most important irrigation development technological change, in the Kosi area. In fact, project, the Kosi project. Because of this, their we begin our observations with this develop. agricultural economies are subject to drastic ment. improvements where canal water is available, and signs of it are not far to seek. The second reason is on the less happy side of things. They The New Technology are known for extremes in the size of landhold- ings; generally prevailing low levels of farm The new technology is no longer a hallmark of practices and production; chronic food deficits only Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, and a few and occasional famines; the prevalence of small other parts of the country. By and large, Bihar farmers; the high rate of sharecropping under still conjures up an image of agricultural primi- rack-rent conditions; the ejection of tenants tivism and unrelieved poverty. But it is no Bihar Field Trip 443 longer all that sweeping in parts of Purnea or to management" is the by now familiar Rs800 Saharsa, for there too there exist fairly large to 1,000 an acre. He has done well in yet an- islands of change where water and other re- other way. He paid Rs500 an acre for the land sources are available. This we encountered as and he could sell it now at Rs6,000 an acre. *soon as we landed at Purnea's small air strip. And if ever the airstrip is enlarged, he will find On the edge of it and practically undistin- himself with a valuable "commercial" prop- guished from it, a Massey-Ferguson was plow- erty only a real estate developer could dream ing up a field. We agreed with the development of-all in all, just an aspect of the new tech- commissioner of Purnea who greeted us upon nology that came to Purnea. arrival that we would not have to go far afield This is reminiscent of the Punjab story, par- to look for the new technology. ticularly in relation to farmers with irrigated It was our experience in Punjab that the land. But one point needs emphasizing, though sample of cultivators engaged in the new prac- it is obvious by now. The doctor farmer, the tices contained a doctor turned part-time cloth merchant with his four-acre hobby, the farmer. In Purnea, within steps of the airstrip, lieutenant colonel with his 16.5 newly put- our first "case" also proved to be a doctor, an chased acres, the gasoline station owner who ex-doctor turned full farmer, and small farmer is happily new in the game with 25 acres at that. Our find was in his early sixties, spry acquired two years ago, and the numerous old- and wide awake, who six years ago in the midst time farmers we encountered during the trip of a busy practice set out to change his way of were able to shift from traditional to modern life. He bought eight acres of land and built farming because they could muster the re- himself a neat but simple shack where he lives sources needed to effect the change. And and from which he farms his land. Unlike the these are considerable even for a small farmer; pretentious Punjab doctor farmer, he is not for one with 7 acres must have a pair of doing it "for my country"; farming is his new bullocks worth Rs2,000, a tube well de- way of life because, as he explained to us in his manding about Rs6,500, and inputs worth precise English, "if you want to die don't take Rsl,500-or a total of RsIO,000. Once these poison-go to Purnea." Ministering to the sick basics are provided, the new practices are must have gotten on his nerves, but in moving no respector of the size of holding; and our from the discomforts and bustle of even so Purnea experience doesn't differ in essentials small a city as Purnea, he didn't exchange ac- from that in Ludhiana. One can derive a larger tivity for merely reading holy scripture or con- or smaller income depending upon the acreage templating his navel. On the contrary, he is a farmed, but water, high-yielding varieties, and very busy farmer, as progressive minded as the insecticides if applied within proper norms are big innovator farmer elsewhere. He dug a tube as surely productive on small as on large hold- well on which he spent Rs6,500 and assured ings. While this much has been settled, the fact for the farm an adequate water supply. Wheat remains that the overwhelming majority of is his principal crop; he buys high-yielding seed the small holders in Purnea-as in Punjab-do varieties at Rs250 a quintal and the amount of not have the resources to utilize the new pack- fertilizer he uses is just what the recommended age of practices. We shall elaborate on this package prescribes but very few apply: 33 theme in another section of this note. kilograms nitrogen, 25 kilograms phosphorous pentoxide, and 20 kilograms potassium oxide. He virtually double crops his land, plowing Wheat being done by tractor at Rs25 an acre, thresh- ing by machine and harvesting by hired hands, Purnea is overwhelmingly a paddy district, but all at a cost of one-eighth of the crop. As wheat, not paddy, is the pivot around which the among the best wheat farmers, his yield is 45 new technology revolves. Strange as it may ap- to 50 maunds' to the acre and his "net return pear to the reader-and it surely appeared strange to us when we ran into the phenome- non-it was in Purnea city that we first came 1. One maund equals 82.5 pounds. across something of a "wheat craze." The local 444 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 officialdom-from the development commis- have taken to the new wheat technology with sioner, magistrate, and on down the bureau- the greatest alacrity: from 15 acres to 995 acres cratic line, so it seemed-were all growing under high-yielding varieties between 1965-66 high-yielding variety wheat in their back or and 1968-69. Given a fairly assured water sup- front yards. Our visit coincided with the har- ply, other villages reacted similarly, if not so- vesting and threshing season, and it was a spectacularly. Worthy of note, too, is that in common sight to spot the city farmers on their these particular villages the literacy rate was half-acre or quarter-acre plots helping gather undoubtedly below the notoriously low state in the crop. Only the flower beds have suffered, average of 15 percent; but evidently the idea but the local magistrate and his wife super- of better practices was quickly assimilated just- vising the threshing-to cite one instance- the same. This is not to extol illiteracy as a have done very well. Their crop is not big, the conveyor of useful information, but it is just holding being not quite half an acre; but, with possible that, at an early stage of technical agri- the help of the garden hose, effective varieties, cultural revolution, literacy is not as crucial a and fertilizer, their yield is a record 30 naunds variable as one might have been led to believe. and it will be all sold as high-grade seed at Rs250 a quintal instead of as grain at Rs75 a quintal. Not all these new-fangled "farmers" in- Paddy vested equally in their miniature farms, pro- ducing mostly wheat for their own consump- We noted that the Green Revolution in Kosi tion; but most important is the fact that the is centered around wheat, not paddy. The new technology has made it both possible and, "miracle rice" is well known among the farm- from their point of view, very much worth ers, but it takes little searching to find that in their while. Nor does it matter if this spurt Kosi area, where paddy is king, the crop is in of activity on the part of all manner of bureau- a state of flux. This is not to say that it can't crats is only a passing vogue. For the time make tIp its mind which way to go; the direc- being, they turned the late Prime Minister tion is clear, but getting there will take time. Shastri's motto "let there be a kitchen garden" In Purnea, with a million acres under paddy, into "let there be a wheat plot," thereby indi- the concern is not, as in wheat, to expand acre- cating the nature of the change, even if only age but rather to substitute traditional varieties on a small scale. But it is in the countryside yielding 10 to 15 maunds an acre with taichung that one sees its full scope; there, the new kind or IR8 yielding double or triple that, or with of wheat and some of the practices that go improved local varieties. Farmers readily con- with it are firmly entrenched. cede that under certain conditions they outper- Looking at the crop pattern of Purnea dis- form local varieties, but for good and sufficient trict from 1964-65 through 1968-69, it is reasons they hesitate to plunge, as so many of obvious that wheat is becoming a major crop. them have done in the case of wheat. They Whereas the rice acreage has hovered around know that the high yields of the "miracle" 1.1 million and jute has declined from 300,000 varieties are having difficulty in stabilizing to a little more than 200,000 acres, the acre- themselves; 40 or more maunds to the acre age under wheat has increased from 56,000 to one season and only 10 the next is not an un- 220,000, practically on a par with jute and next common experience. to rice; the fourfold increase has been effected Nobody knows how much "miracle" paddy within the last three years. Even more remark- there is in Purnea, and we found no one to able is the changeover in Saharsa district: from venture an estimate. One can only surmise 8,000 acres of wheat in 1965-66 to 130,000 in that, since it hadn't caught on like fire and the 1968-69. These global figures speak loud about general attitude is one of caution, the acreage a basic transformation in the district, but it is is small. In one large package block with 32,000 not without interest to trace the quick reaction acres in paddy, the high-yielding area was esti- of the farmers to what they considered was mated at only 400 acres in contrast to 95 per- good for them. Thus, the farmers of Kalaiye cent for new wheat. Not all villages visited village (Purnea), with a total of 1,855 acres, show so low a proportion of new to traditional Bihar Field Trip 445 paddy, while in some the increase has been taichung is down; IR8 is evidently up, though very steep-from 5 acres in one year to 350 still on a small acreage. Indigenous dwarf va- acres the next, or from nothing in 1966-67 to rieties now released-jaya and padma-will 200 acres in 1967-68. But in 1968-69 one undoubtedly be tested soon by the most enter- finds instances of a drop-off in acreage, notably prising of Kosi farmers. At the same time, some of the taichung type. Farmers distinguished be- local improved varieties are on the increase. tween taichung and IR8 and prefer the latter In summary, measured quantitatively, there is because its yields are higher, it tastes better no Green Revolution for paddy yet, but some (although it suffers by comparison with local of its ingredients are already there in terms of varieties), and the extraction rate is 80 percent the existing trials and errors and the prevalent compared with taichung's 62 percent. But the aspirations to expand paddy output. These are real reluctance to use taichung is due to its no mean achievements in themselves. greater proneness to disease in the rainy season and its resistance to insecticides. This variety had something of an earlier start than IR8, and Irrigation the richest farmer of Dogachi village (Purnea) was so impressed with it after the first season The rapid rate of assimilation of the new that he named his rather spacious new house wheat culture and, to a degree, the new paddy the "Taichung House." This gesture proved to culture reflects above all the expansion of the be an ill-chosen tribute to the variety. With the water supply provided by the Kosi irrigation silting and closure of the canals in the summer scheme and so far to a very small degree only and sole dependence upon the rainy season, by the appearance of tube wells. Under exist- taichung is only a memory as far as he is con- ing rainfall conditions a farmer could count on cerned. Only the name of the house reminds only one crop, whereas under Kosi a three-crop him of the unsuccessful experiment. IR8 is pattern-rabi, kharif, and summer-is being doing better, but it wouldn't do at this stage to adopted. Since the Kosi irrigation scheme is say that it has really turned the corner, the central piece in this radical transformation, It is altogether too early to judge the future a word about Kosi-what it is now and its of the high-yielding paddy varieties. Our im- future prospects-is in order. pression is that many, if not most, farmers are Without going into many details, suffice it still experimenting with them whereas wheat is to say that if the scheme is completed in 1973 now firmly rooted. Kosi is not singular in this or 1974 as planned, it might accomplish the regard, for this holds for new wheat versus new following: a gross command area of 2.3 million paddy in state after state. The new paddy, un- acres, out of which the culturable command like wheat, is a much more sophisticated plant area is estimated at 1.5 million acres and a po- which responds favorably only to a specific set tentially irrigated crop area of 1.8 million acres. of conditions. On their own, the farmers of On this basis, about 40 percent of the cultivable Purnea, as elsewhere, cannot fashion them. land of Purnea and as much as 80 percent of The same can be said of the Kosi irrigation that of Saharsa district would be benefited by scheme even if all the difficulties connected the Kosi irrigation scheme. Whether the with proper water delivery were eliminated. scheme will be completed on time or not-its The problem is a national one and only sus- financing is meeting with increasing difficul- tained research of the highest order, with ad- ties-presently Kosi is officially providing justments for regional and local characteristics, water for 650,000 acres. Unofficially it is not can develop a new paddy technology. In the quite so; but the changes the project has al- meantime, there is no indication in Purnea ready effected cannot be overestimated, and a that the mixed bag of successes and failures trip in any direction encompassed by the have in any way lessened the appeal of the scheme makes this clear. But in relation to miracle rice. The imagination of too many what the scheme has set out to attain now and farmers has already been stirred by what it in the future, there is likely to be a gap be- offers under appropriate conditions. For the tween promise and fulfillment. It is increasingly moment some farmers burned their fingers and recognized by the administrators of Kosi and 446 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 farmers alike that its effective coverage will cations filed, 194; and tube wells dug, some of ultimately fall short of its mark, just as it is which energized, 92. One of the reasons for falling short of the acreage it is supposed to this state of affairs is the assumption by many cover now. Part of the explanation lies in the farmers that somehow Kosi would provide silting problem which has already reduced more water than it ever promised. But the Kosi's water delivery program. While no in- fundamental obstacle is the lack of resources formation is available on just how large an area and the difficulty of securing the credit of is involved, it is a safe surmise that the effec- Rs6,000 or so needed to finance the construc- tive coverage is something less than 650,000 tion of one. The new breed of farmers of the acres or, to put it differently, that the area com- kind mentioned have no resource problem; manded doesn't receive fully assured water they latch on to the new technological wave supplies throughout the year. It doesn't if only with cash or creditworthiness good enough to because the canals are closed for desilting in the borrow what they need if they need it. The summertime (about three months) and in Oc- same is true of the large owners, but little of tober before the rabi season commences. No this applies to the bulk of the farmers. effective solution of the problem of how to They must do their financing through bor- desilt flood waters originating in the Himalayas rowing, but for many even to obtain the mini- is on the horizon; and the interruptions, in- mum which a small rube well requires entails adequacy, and insecurity of the Kosi water almost insuperable difficulties. One of the con- supply will continue within the foreseeable ditions to secure electrification of the well is future. This said, Kosi with all its problems is an advance of Rs2,000 per power connection to the most important source of irrigation for the the state electricity board, which is set off two districts, for there are areas in Purnea and against the electricity charges. This was enough Saharsa where next to the uncertain rainfall to discourage many applicants, and the provi- there is no other water facility. Jaladgarh vil- sion was abolished this spring. But another lage (Purnea) with its 1,300 acres is a case in important provision has remained unchanged. point. The farmers there have water on their When Bihar State Development Bank advances brains, and understandably so. The village has a loan, it does so upon the condition that the only eight tube wells thinly stretched over 100 borrower mortgages his land as security, land acres, and this is where modernized agriculture worth twice the amount of the loan. With an is centered and, of necessity, at a reduced eye to ensuring repayment, the provision may tempo: better but not up-to-standard quality be valid; but this type of security, and par- seed, only slightly more than a third of the ticularly the doubling of the security, auto- prescribed fertilizer dosage, a token of pesti- matically excludes all tenants-and Purnea and cides, and so on. The conclusion is obvious and Saharsa have many of them-and most small needs no comment. What does call for a com- farmers. It leads also to self-exclusion of not a ment is the prospect of tube well development. few of those who have sufficient land to mort- The preceding paragraph might leave the gage but don't wish to have it encumbered for impression that there are next to no tube wells the life of the loan, which is seven years. On in these districts. There are, finished and un- top of that, the bank takes a conservative posi- finished, but one hesitates to cite a firm figure tion in determining land values. In the circumn- because the number depends upon the person stances, only the select few are privileged to giving the information or the brochure one secure such a loan. This very cautious approach, consults. One can only hazard a guess of a few good to ensure prompt repayment, has little to thousand. That many more thousands of rube recommend itself on developmental grounds. It wells are badly needed as a supplementary helps explain why even in the favored package source of water to Kosi is recognized by all blocks the gaps are so wide between targets, concerned. Kosi's silting problem only accentu- the number of applications filed, the applica- ates the need, but so far the efforts to this end tions granted, and the tube wells constructed. have not been too successful. Package block It appears to us as a restrictive approach to "Purnea East" may serve as an illustration. The tube well financing, the more so since a tube tube well target for 1967-68 was 453; appli- well program is designed to advance the new Bihar Field Trip 447 technology in areas where its acceptance is ripe an insufficient water supply, but the basic de- and secure water availability is its motive terrent even in the case of those who have power. water is lack of credit. This will be discussed Such handicaps notwithstanding, Purnea has in subsequent paragraphs, but it should be just set a target of 8,000 tube wells in twenty noted that, despite the presence of restrictive selected blocks during the coming five years, factors, fertilizer consumption is very much on at a cost of Rs8 crores. Considering the need, the increase. Coming back to the package block the program is a modest one. It is also likely Purnea East, the utilization of fertilizer be- that groundwater reserves are ample for such tween 1965-66 and the incomplete year of development. Its implementation, therefore, 1968-69 jumped from 62 to 900 tons. This may well be attained and an additional 80,000 nearly fifteen-times increase doesn't mean of or more acres brought under irrigation, though course that the farmers are applying the pre- not necessarily within the time projected. Since scribed norm. If they did, the consumption of the average cost per tube well is estimated at fertilizer might have been closer to 2,700 tons. RslO,000, it is safe to say that the principal But the trend is very much upward, and the beneficiaries will be the large landholders with results are similar in the Kosi area as a whole. owned or borrowed resources. This is not sur- In the period of 1965-66 and 1967-68, con- prising; it is characteristic of the new pattern sumption of fertilizer has risen from 2,500 to of technology in Purnea as in Ludhiana, and 24,000 tons, and, if the official estimate for the same with regard to all other investments in 1968-69 is correct, the volume should be up inputs which distinguish the role of the few to 44,000 tons, or approximately the same rate and the many in the current phase of rural of increase as Purnea East. modernization. If one considers the fact that only three years ago the Kosi area was on a par with some of the most backward sections of rural India, the Fertilizer remarkable thing is not the shortfall from the norm but the volume of fertilizers actually used. It is a tribute to the pervasiveness of the new It is not necessary to labor the point that, next to water and improved seed varieties, . to the farmers who recog chemical fertilizers are a prime ingredient of nized it for what it is. Nevertheless, the much- the new package of practices. Our first case, the involved development commissioner of Purnea doctor farmer has demonstrated that, aside from lays stress on the failure of the farmers to take his initial investment in a tube well, the major up by a considerable margin the volume of part of his expenditures is for fertilizer because fertilizers available in the district. Aside from disinterestedness on the part of some farmers he uses the prescribed dosages. He is not an exception but he is not typical of most farmers which may be attributed to backwardness, there of Purnea either. Talks with farmers reveal are a number of other factors which retard the that while fertilizer effectiveness is conceded adoption of the new technology.' But of all on all sides, some use none and most of the retarding factors, the prevailing view is that small and nor so small farmers use, on average, inadequate credit is the principal explanation relatively little. An investigation of 1,500 Pur- of the shortfall in fertilizer consumption. This underscores the role of an agrarian institution nea farmers, with holdings ranging in size from in simulting or rtaring technological less than one to 20 acres, concluded that "only cng i ng o retading B h gral change. In Kosi area and in Bihat generally 18.5 percent of the total requirement was ful- . filled."2 The nonfulfillment is not in the midst eitingintits, and mre immeiael of spplyshotage bu of mpl ailbit, credit facilities, tend to retard such change. of supply shortages but of ample availability. The reluctance to use more fertilizer is due to 3. Fragmentation of holding, land status, inade- quate and untimely supply of inputs, inadequate and 2. "Problems of Small Farmers of Kosi Area untimely irrigation, unsuitability of land, lack of (Purnea and Saharsa Districts)" (Bihar: Patna, credit facilities, and other factors like storage and 1969), p. 13. marketing. 448 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Credit Compared with the all-India 26 to 28 percent of all rural credit provided by the cooperatives, A sample study prepared by the office of the the figure for Purnea and Saharsa is only about development commissioner of Purnea, covering 15 percent. It bespeaks a number of things: Purnea and Saharsa districts for the year 1967- that only a third of the farm families are mem- 68, show [p. 46] the following sources of short- bers of cooperatives; that less than half of term credit: them receive credit; that vast numbers of small farmers receive the short-end of credit even if Percentage their needs are most pressing, and the size of Credit sources Purnea Saharsa Consolidated a cooperative loan ranges from a high of Rs195 to as low as Rsl2. Interestingly enough, the (taccavi loans) 15.5 18.2 17.8 highest figure applies to landholders in the Cooperatives 15.0 12.2 13.0 category of 10 to 12.5 acres. This is a departure Moneylenders 67.3 69.1 67.6 from the norm, which is to say that the farmers Commercial banks 2.2 0.5 1.6 with the largest holdings, in this instance from Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 15 to 20 acres, might have been expected to control the cooperatives and receive credit ac- Commercial bank credit is too negligible to be cordingly. It may well be an exception to prove worth discussing, and its much talked about the rule. Cooperative credit, which accounts future role need not detain us here. If all the for 15 percent of the total and on an individual bank loans were spent on the purchase of basis considerably less than RslO0, cannot but fertilizer, which is not the case, the volume restrict consumption of fertilizer, except for could not have been of any significance. Farm- the few farmers high on the credit-receiving ers like taccavi loans; they are provided by the scale. The following sheds additional light on state governments at lower interest rates than this problem in Kosi and beyond: the 8 to 9 percent charged by the cooperatives. While for the package areas the portion of What most farmers don't like is their extremely short-term cooperative credit advanced in uneven distribution. Assuming that the sample kind can be said to be an average slightly is reasonably correct, farmers in the category more than 15 percent of the total, short- of 17.5 to 20 acres received an average of moeta 15prntfthttl,sr- sf per5 fo 20aily cpared wt rge f term credit provided for the particular areas Rs200in which the high-yielding variety crops farmers in the category of 2.5 to 5 acres, or i hc h ihyedn ait rp Rs28 in the 5 to 7.5 acre category [table 16 are grown the corresponding figure is about Rs2 inthe5 t 7. are ateoryItale o6t 40-50 percent. For the country as a whole, All these loans are essentially handouts, not howevereth perctae my be aid often repaid, and it is not surprising that they broadly to be 15 percent in kind and 85 per- are so small. Only the larger landholders prob- t n c t preis infrato is ably use some of these loans for fertilizer, thus cent in cash, though precise information is contributing to the skewness of the rate of ap- plication as between groups of farmers. As to Purnea and Saharsa have some better- the volume purchased, it cannot be very large, financed package blocks but their cooperatives partly because the total of the taccavi is rela- are not exceptional, and even they do not pro- tively small and partly because even the larger vide 40 to 50 percent of the credit in the form recipients of such loans have more than de- of fertilizer and other inputs. It is a safe con- velopmental problems to worry about. jecture that, on the average, the farmers who Cooperative credit was supposed to have receive cooperative credit spend no more than been the principal source of rural financing, 15 percent of it for fertilizer. If so, this type of particularly for the poorer farmers. This is not credit, and in the amount received, makes only so for India generally, despite the vast expan- a limited contribution to the consumption of sion of credit in recent years, and Bihar is no exception. As a matter of fact, Bihar is one of the weakest states in this regard, and the Kosi 4. "Report of the Fertilizer Credit Committee of area reflects the disarray of the credit societies, the Fertilizer Association of India" (1968), p. 131. Bihar Field Trip 449 fertilizer; but this is not to say that the richer Kosi are not conducive to the optimum utiliza- farmers depend only on credit for the pur- tion of fertilizer and of other inputs in con- chases of their inputs. In the case of the under- sonance with the requirements created by the privileged small farmers of Kosi area, the situa- greater availability of water and new practices. tion is worse; according to the study by the The prevalence of this condition is attested by office of the development commissioner, "the the already mentioned shortfall in the offrake cooperatives and government agency (taccavi of fertilizer of which there is no longer a short- loans) between them hardly contribute 10 to age in Kosi. Precise data on the role of credit 15 percent of the requirements of the small in the lifting of the roughly 30 percent of total farmers," and this doesn't mean only input re- requirements are not available, but it cannot quirements. be very significant. The question that arises is The lion's share of credit in Kosi, approxi- how and who among the Kosi farmers bought mately two-thirds of it, is furnished by money- the 24,000 tons in 1967-68 or the estimated lenders. In making loans they draw little dis- 40,000 tons in 1968-69? The plausible answer tinction between the rich and poor farmers, is that much of it was bought for cash, and this and a good deal of the total finds its way to in turn suggests that the principal buyers are farmers with 10 acres and less. Even farmers the bigger farmers who are in a position to "below one acre" average around Rs55, whereas command the necessary funds. The unevenness this group hardly ever receives cooperative or of per acre utilization readily observable in the taccavi loans. For the greater part loans fur- field bears on the same point. This, of course, nished by the moneylenders range from RsOO is not typical only of Kosi; the same is true to to Rs300. Only farmers in the highest category, a considerable degree in Punjab, where the 15 to 20 acres, find little need to deal with bulk of the small farmers are either not par- moneylenders. Considering that the money- ticipating in the new package of practices, or lenders provide so large a pool of credit com- are participating to a small extent only. In pared with the other types, it is doubtful that Kosi as elsewhere this demonstrates the sharp such loans are used for fertilizer, and chiefly economic stratification of the village com- because of the high interest rate. Getting loans munity and its bearing on the Green Revolu- from the moneylenders is so common that indi- tion. The availability of credit according to vidually or in groups farmers are not reluctant need rather than influence could reduce this to tell what they pay for it. The usual response form of polarization, and it goes a long way in Kosi is not interest rate in terms of a per- to explain the stress of the "Report of the centage but in so many annas to the rupee. Fertilizer Credit Committee" on more credit With but few exceptions the going rate of in- more evenly distributed among the present terest is 12 annas to the rupee or 75 percent a and future consumers of fertilizers. Barring year, and sometimes only for the growing sea- that, consumption will undoubtedly continue son of particular crop-a much higher annual to rise along with the increasing number of rate. This compares with the highest we en- participants, but the problem of unequal ap- countered in the most backward sections of plication of fertilizer and, by the same token, rural India. The corollary of this is that, if a that of failing to lift the needed and growing farmer uses such loans for the purchase of availability of fertilizer, will remain unresolved, fertilizers, he pays in effect at least 70 to 80 retarding at the same time the spread of the percent more than the normal price. It is new technology. questionable if many farmers would use such high-cost fertilizer. Additionally, many small farmers avail themselves of such loans mainly Land Values because of immediate cash requirements for household expenditures which have little to do The new technology, coupled with the antici- with inputs. In the conditions described, one pation of increased water availability, has sent cannot expect loans of this type to play a sig- land values up. They are not, to be sure, in the nificant role in the consumption of fertilizers. Punjab category, but they are rising just the The conclusion is that the credit facilities of same and not only for irrigated land. Kosi 450 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 water and the beginnings of tube well develop- lative: that Kosi will somehow extend its water ment have "turned sand into gold." While this command so as to include at least part of the is having deplorable effects on the tenant class, land in question; that conditions for digging about which a great deal later, land prices have tube wells will ease; that large-scale govern- shot up from Rsl,000 or less to Rs5,000 to ment tube wells will come into the picture, 6,000 and more per acre where, along with though admittedly there are very few in the water, the profitability of the new inputs has be- area; or, finally, that perhaps a brand new irri- come apparent. Kosi abounds in such examples, gation scheme will revive the land. But under- and the lieutenant colonel already mentioned neath it all is the none-too-well articulated yet illustrates an aspect of this development. In hopeful thought that the agricultural trans- September of 1968 he was lucky enough to formation now taking place in parts of Purnea buy 16.5 acres of what was then unproductive must eventually encompass the less favored land for a total of Rs22,000. He added a tube areas. At a crossroads situated in something well at a cost of Rs6,500, spent another Rs2,000 resembling blighted land, the group of farmers for leveling the land, and inputs worth Rs175 knew that "over there" better things were tak- per acre. Unbelievable as it may seem, nine ing place; and it was not surprising to hear a months later he harvested 10 acres in wheat, farmer speak with derision about the 8 to 10 returning 40 maunds to the acre. Listening to maunds of wheat or rice that he extracts from him on the threshing table, he was full of future an acre of land, a yield that reduces a farmer plans and hopes of purchasing another 10 to debt and penury. The voicing of discontent acres to "round out" his holding. He was not is, of course, a by-product of the Green Revolu- modest about his venture and understandably tion which has so far left him and multitude so; his total investment of some Rs30,000 of of others untouched, except in a psychological not a year ago has a ready resale value of sense. This in itself is a change and departure Rs72,000. Whether fortune will smile on him from the customary attitude, although we can- again if he succeeds in acquiring another 10 not judge how widespread it is. If widespread acres is another matter; water availability or it may work for good or ill, depending upon the prospect of getting it has, on the one hand, the presence or absence of a suitable release raised land values and given urgency to "round for desires no longer easily contained. Not out" land properties; but on the other hand, many miles further up the road we chanced to the market availability of such promising land meet a tenant who cast some doubts on the has virtually dried up. What little land is sold imminence of changing traditions. Contrary to falls into the general category of "distress" our usual experience, he proved a noncoopera- sales-death in the family, mortgage fore- tive witness about his own condition. He did closure, and so forth. Land once neglected is give us the reason and it can be best roughly all too precious now to part with, translated in these words: "To discuss my The values of nonirrigated land and down- circumstances is to complain, and I do not right poor land with precipitation so scanty want to dig my own grave." Chronologically, that a good deal of it is not in cultivation are this belongs in the section on tenancy and we also rising. Traveling between Purnea and leave the subject in abeyance. In the meantime, Tejpur, the location of the Kosi barrage, one however, and reverting to the subject at hand, can't but notice a huge expanse of land, esti- land values are moving up even in that neck of mated at a million acres, most of it dry, more the woods. nearly scratched than cultivated. In response to questions about land prices in that predomi- Wage Scales and Labor Conditions nantly empty wilderness, farmers volunteered that much of the land is in the hands of large The first round of the new package of prac- proprietors and not for sale; what is for sale tices caused land values to rise, but the situa- has gone up from between Rs300 and 500 to tion is not quite the same for the wages of between Rsl,000 and 1,500-and that small landless agricultural workers or farmers with holders are also reluctant to sell. The reasons little land who are also in the market as casual given appeared to this observer highly specu- laborers, though wages too have risen. The Bihar Field Trip 451 reasons are twofold. First, while the precise something of a food price insurance, is no size of the labor force in Kosi is not available, longer favored by owners of irrigated, high- an estimate for Bihar as a whole a decade ago yielding land. An owner was patiently explain- suggests that it accounts for about a quarter ing to us, as if it needed explaining, that it was or slightly more of the total number of farm to his advantage to pay Rs3 or 4 rather than households. This explains why it is generally the usual share of a much bigger crop. The accepted in Kosi that those seeking farm em- impression carried away is that real wages have ployment are in great surplus. Second, the new remained pretty much where they were five technology, still representing only a small per- years ago and that the increase in monetary centage of all the cultivated land of Purnea, is terms is essentially a reflection of the rise in not extensive enough to give these groups the the cost of living and the very limited scope kind of bargaining power their counterparts in of alternative occupations. The striking feature Punjab have during the peak seasons. What of the Kosi area is that one can travel miles is in their favor on the limited area affected by on end without ever coming across a smoke the Green Revolution is the three-crop pattern stack or a big or small industrial establishment. with its greater demand for labor and the The nonagricultural work consists mainly of shortage of labor-saving devices. After all, odd jobs like carrying loads, repairing or build- Purnea can boast of only 250 tractors and of ing houses, driving carts, sometimes canal very little other modern farm equipment. In digging, and so on. Since the scope of these these conditions, the general run of wages on types of occupation is restricted, the conditions irrigated land in the busy season is Rs3 to 4, of a rapidly growing labor force could not have more 3 than 4, plus food, for a 10 to 12 hour changed much from the patterns evolved in the working day. At least one owner informed us past, the exception being the pockets of tech- that his hired hands worked during the har- nological change and their additional labor re- vesting season from 4 A.M. to 7 P.M., with a quirements. The absence of labor migration in two hour break, for Rs3 plus food. This may any significant degree to areas outside of Kosi not be typical, but information from other and the still prevailing old agricultural prac- sources suggest that it is not exceptional either. tices explain the long stretches of rural labor Clearly, Purnea is not Ludhiana where wages unemployment. Occasionally an owner tends are approximately twice as large; and the same to endow the casuals with full employment, holds for farm wage scales on nonirrigated land forgetting that January, February, June, Octo- and for remunerations received by permanent ber, and November are very slack months. or attached laborers. Laborers questioned privately present a more Farm wages in Purnea have not stood still realistic picture: For the greater part they are just as they haven't throughout the country. A employed from 150 to 180 days per year, not shortage of labor has nothing to do with this counting 30 to 40 days of nonagricultural em- upward movement, for there is none; on no ployment. occasion have big landowners complained about The preceding is even more germane to the any labor shortage during any season of the conditions of work for permanent labor, which year. But the steady rise in the cost of living constitutes about one-fourth of the total labor has done for Purnea what a similar develop- force seeking employment. The system of ment has done for other rural and nonrural permanent or attached labor is widely prac- sections of the country. The upshot is that in ticed among the bigger owners, and this is but the Kosi area farm wages during the nonpeak one of the differences between Kosi and seasons, if translated into cash, have risen from Ludhiana. In Punjab a permanent laborer gen- one rupee to Rs2, plus one or two meals. This erally receives Rs120 per month, including is for male labor; female labor rates are a rupee food and often clothing. In Purnea and Saharsa or slightly more plus food. Not all payments one is brought up short when the usual answer are in cash, especially for harvesting and is anywhere from Rsl5 to 30 per month plus threshing, where custom dictates that each of food and clothing. The shock over, a more these operations be paid at the rate of one- complicated arrangement emerges. A farmer sixteenth of the crop. This practice, which is with 120 acres has twelve permanent laborers, 452 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 using casual labor only during the busy sea- Small Farmers and the New Technology sons. He pays them Rs25 a month but he also T d leases out to them small plots on the usual The discussion so far has confined itself to Kosi tenurial terms, which are anything but liberal farmers as a group and to agricultural laborers. in Purnea. It is from this that they draw their An occasional reference to "small farmers" and additional compensation, but it was also care- to tenants was made mainly in passing, with a fully explained to us that the amount of land promise of more later on. The "later on" is leased out is small enough so as not to interfere here and the subsequent paragraphs are an with the much larger labor requirements of attempt to deliver as it were on the "promis- the employer. If the permanent laborers do as sory note." It should be noted at the outset that, well as the casuals by the combination of Rsl5 while the two groups claiming our attention to 30 plus the extras, they also have the other are of the Kosi area, they are not limited by advantage of "permanency." But the system is geography. With variations, they are typical of showing signs of weakening. Continuous tie-in Bihar as a whole, just as they are typical of with land allotments or crop sharing with the parts of practically all other states of India. saie employees is creating apprehension in What they represent and what issues they raise the minds of the landowners, for according to are important for two reasons: They are slow- certain land reform provisions this practice ing down, even if unwittingly, the rate of might infringe on their proprietory rights if growth of the new technology; and, if their ever the provisions come to be taken seriously. condition undergoes no improvement, they On the whole, the labor picture in Kosi is could just as possibly turn to raising hell as not a pretty one. Observing the workers in the raising crops. This would not be in the Indian village and in the field and mentally calculating rural tradition, we are told, but the Green their take-horne pay, the size of their families, Revolution isn't either and so is much else in the food expenditures which amount to about India and elsewhere until overtaken by new 75 percent of their total income, and the pressures or new ideas. These gloomy fore- knowledge that two-thirds of them are in debt, bodings rest mainly on the limited land base some nagging thoughts come to mind. First of of the great majority of cultivators of Bihar, all the never-ending wonderment about the the pattern of land distribution, the unenviable poverty in which a not insignificant segment state of farm labor, and the somewhat similar of the rural population lives and above all the condition of the tenants or sharecroppers. patience with which it is endured. Close fa- Growing land pressure and small holdings miliarity with this sort of human condition is are no novelty in India and even less so in just as depressing as if it were seen for the Bihar. In 1951 the average size of a holding first time. For the same reason it is more re- was 4 acres; in 1961 it was only 3 acres (frag- vealing in its implications, and hence the not mented in about a dozen plots) as against an altogether idle question-what if the cup be- all-India average of 7.5 acres. This evidence gins to run over? Second, with alternative of land hunger becomes clearer still when the occupations in the Kosi area being what they land distribution pattern is examined; the fol- are, and even if the number of employables lowing figures sum up the situation:' remains stationary, an unlikely condition- Percentage their lot can't be relieved unless the coverage Size of holdings (acres) Number Area of the Green Revolution expands sharply. O to 1 31.0 3.6 Finally, the much debated question of disparity I to 2.5 25.5 10.3 of incomes between the rich and the poor, 2.5 to 5.0 20.5 17.9 whether for reasons of the new technology or 5.0 to 10.0 14.3 24.2 the existing rural structure, calls for no elabora- 10.0 to 25.0 7.1 24.9 tion. It was there before the advent of the irri- 25.0 to 50.0 1.1 8.6 gation facilities and there is more of the same Above 50.0 0.5 10.5 now, its extent being determined by the owner- 5. From Kedarnath Prasad's The Economics of a ship pattern, the size of holdings, the water Backward Region in a Backward Economy (Bom- they command, and the farm practices pursued. bay: Scientific Book Agency, 1967), table 81, p. 160. Bihar Field Trip 453 Those familiar with the character of land dis- We remarked earlier that in the Kosi area tribution in India will not be aghast that 77 the remarkable phenomenon is not underutili- and 23 percent of the holdings and holders zation of inputs but the degree of their utiliza- owned 31.8 and 68.2 percent of the land re- tion. Nevertheless, it cannot be overlooked that spectively. More serious from the point of view the percentage of households in Purnea not of the future fortunes of the Green Revolution using high-yielding varieties is 68; not using is that, if the category of small farmers con- locally improved seed is 80; not using chem- sisted only of those with 5 acres and less, they ical fertilizers is 71; not using pesticides is 80; represent over two-thirds of all the households not using improved implements is 91; and the and 32 percent of the land. Not all the farmers percentage of households not using improved with 5 acres or less are necessarily small farm- methods of cultivation is 81. Backwardness and ers-if they have water-just as not all the shortage of water are not the only explanation farmers with two or three times the acreage of these shortfalls; lack of resources to invest are big farmers-if they have no assured water in better practices and the failure of credit supply. But exact quantification of "who is facilities to fill the gap are contributing to the who" aside, one can see at a glance the enor- same end. The result is that, according to the mity of the task that lies ahead of the Green sample study, the average income per acre of Revolution. traditionally cultivated land is Rsl80, or not For the specifics of the case or the circum- more than a fourth or a third of the income stances in which the "forgotten majority" per acre enjoyed by a fully practicing "Green composed of certain categories of owners, ten- Revolutionary." It takes little imagination to ants, or sharecroppers carry on, we turn again surmise that the Green Revolution cannot to the sample studies carried out in Purnea and prosper if the overwhelming majority of the Saharsa districts in 1967-68. Taking Purnea farmers are left largely to their own devices. as an example with its tested groups of farmers We say "largely" because the "progressives" are from one acre and less up to 20 acres, the fol- assumed to participate in the new technology, lowing picture emerges. The average size of and probably some of the "average" category land per farm family member is 0.65 acres, have nibbled at its edges. The disconcerting ranging from a low one-tenth of an acre to a part of it is that many of the outsiders are high of 1.58 acres. The cultivable holdings of where they are while recognizing the tech- 5 acres and less account for 52 percent of the nology's advantages and that most physical investigated households, and 74 percent possess inputs other than water are in ample supply. holdings of below 7.5 acres. All of them culti- Water is indeed the bottleneck, and only 24 vate most of the land, and the rate of intensity percent of the total cultivated land of the of cultivation has gone up in the past two to sample offers opportunities for improved culti- three years from 28 to 43 percent. This is the vation. Yet there are many recorded cases of result of the gradual expansion of the Kosi farmers with Kosi irrigated land but otherwise irrigation scheme which provides them with with limited resources to buy fertilizer, pesti- an estimated 25 percent of their water require- cides, better equipment, and so forth who are ments. For the rest they depend upon the un- only peripherally involved in the Green Revo- certain rainfall because all other water sources lution. -tank, state tube wells, private tube wells, If we labor the resources point or if not suffi- and surface wells energized or not-provide cient stress is placed on "backwardness" or on less than 2 percent of their water needs. What such handicaps as small size of holdings, exces- with 58 percent of the farmers classified as sive land fragmentation, irregular delivery of "backward," 28 percent "average," and only 14 water, untimely though available supply of percent "progressive," the water problem is fertilizer and other inputs, and the scanty con- probably not only a reflection of being mostly tribution of the credit facilities, it is only be- resource-poor. And yet this is the principal cause of the indelible impression of the field cause which induces the wide gap between the trip that there are too many farmers in Purnea prevailing desire for more and better inputs with a little land and with plenty of nothing and using them. of much else. A sympathetic writer on the sub- 454 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 ject bemoans the "overwhelming numbers ings relate to Purnea and Saharsa districts; and pressing heavily on land and [that] recurring they are on the encouraging side provided, of cycles of flood and drought offer a part ex- course, that government policy and action can planation for Bihar's backwardness." He con- nudge them closer to availability of water, tends, however, that "A more serious drag on credit, and other essential inputs. If left alone progress . . . is the deadweight of a tradition- with desires thwarted and growing disparities bound, caste-ridden society, undistinguished by all around, and with a multitude of farmers "on any marked spirit of initiative and self help."" the outside looking in," so-to-speak, a setting This is a familiar and, to a degree, a valid will eventually emerge where customary re- charge. Yet it takes no account of the fact that straints may prove a very thin reed to lean on. in a very short time ideas of change and better- India is not without a few cases where re- ment have also touched Purnea, not only in straints all but melted away under violent the back and front yards of the city wheat agrarian outbreaks. Who will be bold enough growers or in the fields of the new breed of to assert that in Bihar's Purnea frustration and farmers. For reasons already stated, while only discontent will stop short of such outlets? And a minority of the farmers of Purnea partakes of let it be stressed that these references are to the new technology, its significance and the farmer owners, however small their holdings promise it carries for the future cannot be may be. What, then, about tenants or share- overestimated. The conclusion is that, regard- croppers who either have no land of their own less of the negative effects of the deadweight or have so little of it that they mostly work on of tradition and other inhibiting factors, the someone else's land? The remainder of this countervailing power of the Kosi irrigation note is devoted to this question. scheme, for example, and the package of new practices it is giving rise to are watering down tradition and turning the mind of the big and Tenurial Conditions, Reform small farmers toward change. The crucial dif- and Consequences ference between the two is not so much a matter of "the spirit being willing" but in If the account of the small farmers and farm having or not having the wherewithal to en- laborers is not a pretty story, the sharecroppers' large a holding, to dig a well, to hire on occa- story in Kosi area is surely not prettier. The sion a tractor for plowing, to buy fertilizer, or conditions imposed upon them by the owners to be judged creditworthy or not. are probably among the worst in the country. On a more practical level, there is ample The new agricultural policy with its emphasis evidence that a farmer with 3 or 3.5 acres is on greater productivity hardly applies to them. viable if he has an assured water supply and They remain where they have been all along, the new inputs to go with it. The few who except that psychologically they are worse off are in that position double and triple crop and than before the advent of the new practices have a net income of Rs800 or more per acre. and added rewards; neither are they better off Even a farmer with 2 acres who triple crops because of the reform legislation. The crux of can maintain his family at a reasonable sub- the matter is that in Bihar such essentials as sistence level. If on the other hand, "the farmer security of tenure, regulation of rents, and ceil- (with water) is not progressive enough and ings on land ownership are in the deepest of adopts high-yielding varieties to a limited ex- doldrums, perpetuating a land structure as in- tent," the size of the farm has to be 5 to 6 acres equitous as it is inefficient. So long as this for him to be viable. Finally, a nonirrigated prevails and supporting rural institutions gen- farm between 11 and 23 acres can yield the erally render them little assistance in the con- cultivator a fairly good living depending on text of technological changes that are taking his "progressiveness," the quality of the soil, place on other men's fields, greater disparities and other agro-clirnatic conditions. These find- in the levels of production and income are in- evitable. Inevitable, too, are the grievances; they help swell the chorus of discontent already 6. Ibid., p. 48. felt among the small farmers and farm laborers. Bihar Field Trip 455 In sum, Kosi area is a good, if unfortunate, An observer in Purnea is not surprised by example of this state of affairs. owners who view reform measures as if they The farmers of Purnea, Saharsa, or of Bihar were not meant to be enforced and utilize in general are divided into three groups, ac- every loophole to their own advantage. It is a cording to "status." These are "raiyats" or common attitude shared by owners in India owner farmers; "under-raiyats" or tenants gen- involved with tenants. Nor is it unique that erally holding land on cash or share rents and with the Kosi irrigation scheme and techno- with certain recognizable rights in the land logical changes under way, the once-unproduc- they cultivate; finally, the "bataidars" or share- tive and neglected land is becoming a prized croppers, paying rent as the term indicates and asset. Not unlike the bigger owner innovators working the land on oral leases. It is the share- of Punjab, their counterparts of Purnea are croppers who are Kosi's biggest and most eager to make the most of the changed situa- troublesome problem because, unlike the farm- tion induced by rising land values and produc- hands who have no legal claims to the land they tion. One way of achieving it, they contend, is work, the sharecroppers are entitled to such few entanglements with sharecroppers and claims under the Tenancy Act of Bihar. The more hired labor. Relevant to this is a conver- owners deny them these rights on the ground sation with a big Purnea landlord. He first in- that they are not recorded in the record-of- formed us that he owned 16 acres of land but rights, and this is what the tenancy measures corrected himself under the good-humored are in large part all about. According to the prodding of a crowd of farmers that he had Purnea sample study, which included 1,444 failed to mention another 484 acres. The lapse households in thirty-one selected villages, the of memory might have had something to do number of sharecropper households represented with the ceiling on landholdings and its maxi- 43 percent of the total. Of these, only 6.4 per- mum permissible limit of 60 acres; but, on the cent had no land of their own, while the ma- other hand, no owner bows his head in shame jority had some land either as owner or tenant on account of ceiling evasion. He already irri- but not sufficient for subsistence living. Just as gates a fifth of his land and plans much more important as the number of households in- of the same in the next few years. As he looks volved is that the acreage they cultivate on a ahead, he finds his present arrangement with sharecropping basis is 23 percent of the total, the sharecroppers a hindrance. His main rea- or 26 percent if the land rented by the tenants son is the modernization of his land, which is added. What the latter indicates is that the he maintains his sharecroppers cannot under- tenants represent not quite one percent of the take. Speaking as one economic man and, mis- households. This has not always been so, but takenly, to another economic man and moving under the threat of the reform measures owners away from the crowd, he tried to explain to us have managed to "convert" tenants through a in fluent English that the new agricultural variety of questionable methods into insecure policy calls for large resources and unencum- sharecroppers. But this system stands for some- bered management, measures he could apply thing worse than high rent or that the owner only with hired labor. This is a position we contributes nothing but the land towards the encountered in other parts of Purnea, yet the making of the crop. As sharecroppers, their environment is against complete separation of names, the names of the owners, the plots they the tenants from any hold on land. There has lease from them, and rents paid are not in- already been too much bad blood spilt in the scribed in the record-of-rights. Not to be re- process of downgrading tenants to the lowly corded is to have no legal standing in claiming status of unprotected sharecroppers by pre- occupancy or security of tenure rights in courts venting them from being recorded as tenants. of law. Many social and economic consequences Any attempt at yet another round to augment flow from this, all of them comprising grave still further the ranks of farmhands carries no and keenly felt issues, which so far haven't promise of success, but rather of much turmoil been remedied by a number of tenancy reform that might set Purnea on its ear. The local enactments stretching from 1885 into recent scene leaves one with the impression that the years. big owners renting out land will be very lucky 456 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 indeed if they can maintain a semblance of the barring them from adopting the new tech- existing arrangements. The reasons are plain nology. to see as we turn to the conditions presently The study reveals that barely 5 per cent governing the leasing of land. of the share-croppers have used high yield- On the merits or demerits of tenancy as a ing varieties of seeds, fertilizers and insecti- form of land usage, there are reasonable differ- cides. The majority of the land-owners do ences of opinion but there are virtually none not share the additional expenditure on irri- about sharecropping as practiced in Bihar. Even gation, seeds, fertilizers and inputs. Through its supporters would admit, if pressed, that the the efforts of the Extension Machinery system is good neither for efficient production some progressive land-owners have started nor for the well-being of the sharecroppers. sharing 50 per cent of the cost of high- This is brought out very clearly by the case yielding varieties of seeds, fertilizers, in- study already referred to and prepared by local secricides and irrigation. officials with no specially known bias in favor As the share-croppers are not recorded of sharecroppers. We can do no better, there- and their legal rights over the lands culti- fore, than let the summary of the study speak vated by them are not recognized by the for itself:7 land-owners they do not get inputs or loans. Hardly 5 per cent of these are members of The land-owners do not allow the share- Co-operative Societies and their share capital croppers to cultivate the same land from contribution is very low. They get only year to year for the fear that the)' may lay nominal amount as loan from the Society. claim over the land. In irrigated areas the nmnlaon sla rmteScey land-owner generally gets the irrigated lands Since the land-owner goes on changing the cultivated by his own men or hired labour land settled with any particular share- and settles unirrigamed or less fertile lands cropper from year to year, the different with the share-croppers. Big Cultivators who agencies granting loans like the Revenue have large areas of irrigated land have no Department or Agriculture Department or haveon lar arepa of e irrigated land aveven the Co-operative Societies hesitates to option but to get part of the irrigated land advance loan to them. The share-cropper cultivated by share-croppers. In such cases, has to depend mainly on the land-owner or also, the land-owners generally change the the local Mahajan for credit. The land- share-croppers every year. The harvested owner generally supplies seed but takes back crop is kept mostly in the "Khalihan" of the double the amount at the time of the divi- land-owner till the division of the produce. sion of the produce. Though according to law the land-owner is The study has also revealed that most of entitled to ith of the produce only, in the share-croppers belong either to the actual practice, the produce is divided half Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or Back- and half between the land-owner and the ward Classes. They are socially backward. share-cropper. They supplement their income from share- In a few cases the share-croppers who cropping by working as part-time laborers were recorded as under-raiyats in the last either in the fields of the land-owners or Survey and Settlement Operations in the other raiyats of the area. The women get district of Purnea have been dispossessed on part-rime employment during Transplanta- paper either through ex parte title suits or tion or harvesting of paddy and other crops, rents suits though they are still continung to jute retting, etc. Some women also work as cultivate the land and divide the produce on maid servants in the houses of the landlords 50:50 basis with the land-owners. All the or other well-to-do families. The children share-croppers who have been examined also work in the field or tend cattle. Even have invariably stared that the insecurity' with all these the family somehow ekes our of their tenure is the biggest handicap de- a m ale estence a miserable existence. To sum tip only a small percentage 7. "Problems of Small Farmers in Kosi," pp. 49- (about 5 per cent) of the share-croppers 50. have adopted the new technology to a Bihar Field Trip 457 limited extent. The major handicaps against are the Takurs and the Brahmins, castes which their adoption of the new technology are to this day do not touch the plow. When they (i) the insecurity of their tenures, (ii) lack resume land it is not for personal cultivation of credit facilities and non-availability of but it leads instead to eviction of tenants, to inputs, and (iii) social backwardness. so-called "voluntary surrenders" of land by Where and how have the tenurial measures tenants, and to the conversion of tenants into gone so wrong as to perpetuate so obsolete a sharecroppers or agricultural laborers. At best, system of owner-tenant relationship? Since h the right of resumption of any piece of land ssntm stuy of o er-nan reto ? inc rthis has served the owners well as a threat to keep is not a study of agrarian reform in Bihar in the tenants in line concerning security of tenure all its aspects, the comments will be limited to or ownship qine conc uion of te a few essential items. The first one of a general or ownership quesions. The conclusion of the natre s tat he ntie arayof egilatve Planning Commission that "at present few nature is that the entire array of legislative under-raiyats (tenants) feel secure" in Bihar measures suffers from acts of commission and points to the fact that the foundation upon omission, the sum of which is that in the vast which the agrarian reforms were to have rested majority of cases the goals are yet to be realized, is a goal yet to be attained by the vast ma- A few examples illustrate the point. jority of Bihar tenants, including those of the Under the Bihar Tenancy Act of 1885 a Kosi area. The Planning Commission's state- tenant is entitled to the right of occupancy if ment was made in February of 1965, and noth- he has held a plot of land continuously for a mnt as ad in Fe6 period of twelve years. The owners defeated with no security of tenure and no bargain- the provision by changing the tenants. Under ing power, there can be no enforcement of the the same act, nonoccupancy tenants holding officially prescribed rental not exceeding 25 land on written leases are liable to eviction on percent of the produce. We know of no case the expiry of the lease, while those holding where this provision of the act (1961) is ap- land on oral leases cannot be evicted. Since plied. Generally, rent averages from one-half virtually all of them hold land on oral leases, to two-thirds of the gross produce, all the cost they are, in law, protected except on ground of production and equipment being furnished of nonpayment of rent or misuse of the land. by the tenants. In a few cases rent is being paid In practice, however, the measure is completely as a fixed quantity, and any increase in yields ineffective. So long as the act ties security of leads, more often than not, to a rise in the fixed tenure rights to continuous occupation of a rent. In the end, the rental provision could not particular plot or plots of land, the owner possibly be enforced even if the competition evades the provision by rotating the share- for leasing land was not as keen as long as the cropper. Even if the sharecropper cultivates sharecroppers are denied security rights. Land the same land for a stated period of time, oral ceilings or limitations on the size of holdings leasees cannot prove the existence of continu- in order to create a pool of land for the con- ous tenancy in order to acquire occupancy ferment of ownership upon tenants have fared rights. Worse still is the ill-defined provision equally badly. The limitation varies from 20 that permits substantial owners holding more 60 acres, depending upon the quality of the than the ceiling limit to resume land for per- land. In the Kosi area where many holdings sonal cultivation even from tenants who have ln.I h oiae hr ayhlig sonacutivtio eenr f tenancts " ohe run to 1,000 acres or more, a fairly large surplus security of tenure under the tenancy act. r Such of land might have been expected. But this is an owner can resume half of the tenanted area nosobcueteeingapltohead of one acre and a maximum of 5 acres. Furtherland o oenn a be and aoaximm of crs.uthe held by a person and not to the aggregate area a tenant can become an owner of such land held by the family. In fact, every person was upon payment of suitable compensation. As the perd to tansfer ln upcto a ceilin a ceiling provision remains ineffective, neither permitted to transfer land up to a ceiling area provision proved to be of any benefit to the thn a p i six months f the cm- tenants. The principal landowners in Purnea . mencement of the act. There has been a dis- 8. Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of persion of land but on paper only, and in the Surplus Land Act, 1961. process the anticipated surplus acreage has 458 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 virtually disappeared. In the light of this sum- Another instruction was issued a month mary and the situation in present-day Kosi, it is later with the ominous opening reading: "Re- understandable why the conditions of the share ports have been received about evictions of tenants are as bad as they are, that they are in under-raiyats and other agrarian disturbances." no position to advance the cause of the Green This was to make doubly sure that the one Revolution, or that the latter is of no help to remaining measure for redressing the griev- them either. ances of the tenants was terminated, as indeed If a break is to be made in the direction of it was and remains to this day. In late 1967 security of tenure, more reasonable rents, and the union minister of food and agriculture was restoring tenants to the land from which they moved to remind the chief minister of Bihar had been illegally evicted, the first and im- that "it is essential that a special drive should mediate order of business is to try once again be organized for preparation of records of the to establish documentary records that so and under-raiyats and bataidars," but with no visi- so worked so and so's land. Only such written ble effect. On a recent visit to the capital of evidence might persuade the courts and none Bihar we could elicit little more than that the too enthusiastic officials that share tenants exist lack of funds precludes action. And it should and that they are entitled to certain rights in be added that the act of recording doesn't al- land. This attempt failed, but not because of ways guarantee the anticipated benefits. Far technical difficulties or the common excuse of from it. In Purnea, for example, a cadastral lack of funds. A more telling obstacle lies in survey carried out about a decade ago recorded an official's remark that the registration of tenant holdings; but it led to the above- tenants and giving them their due "is bound mentioned disturbances and, in addition, to to upset the social order of things." This re- 40,000 to 50,000 appeals filed in the courts by mark was not altogether out of order because owners contesting such entries. These cases the first special drive to recognize their legal have been wandering from court to court there existence resulted in Purnea in owner-tenant these many years, while in the meantime the disturbances, including a number of murders tenants are denied security rights. on both sides. The drive was called off, the On the face of it and as already indicated, Pandora's box was shut tight, presumably in this is not a pretty picture. On all basic legis- the hope of insuring social order. The instruc- lative counts and from the point of view of tion issued by the Bihar revenue secretary on agricultural productivity, the situation is dis- August 12, 1964, which put an end to this couraging. What offers a glimmer of hope is major reform measure, is well worth quoting: that 15,000 share tenants, of whom 12,000 r hfrom Purnea, were courageous enough to file Reports have been received that in spite of applications with the collectors of the Revenue clear instructions some field officers and Depatment or res tor of the ten e staff have started recording under-raiyats Department for restoration of their tenancies. steaf s). have started ecoingune is That the "seasoned" attitude of the officialdom (tenants). This should stop at once. Until rejected the bulk of them (11,000) doesn't further orders no work relating to recording minimize the significance of their appeal ac- of under-raiyats should be taken up during tion. To this must be added the 40,000 to the Drive period. Even preliminary work 50,000 above-mentioned cases of those who relating to collection of data about posses- evidently refused meekly to accept their fate sion of under-raiyats . . . should be kept in and thereby compelled the owners to carry abeyance . . . Circle Inspectors and Kara- their displeasure to the courts. Who knows how macharis (village accountants) should spe- many thousands more would have asserted cially be warned to follow these instructions their rights if the government of Bihar had carefully. Persons found violating these in- evinced any sympathy for their cause? One structions will be seriously dealt with. Treat thing can be stated affirmatively: The ground most urgent."tigcnb ttdafimtvl:Tegon in Purnea is fertile for a change with or with- 9. Government of Bihar, Revenue Department out the due process of law, and at least in part of Land Reform Section, Revenue Secretary (Patna, because of the new stirrings currently gener- August 12, 1964). ated by the Green Revolution. A determined Bihar Field Trip 459 leadership, however small in number, could campaigns when a public posture of concern make a good deal of political capital by advo- about the downtrodden is useful, but it is evi- cating nothing more radical than the rock- dently deemed less useful once in power; and bottom program of security of tenure and more mainly for this reason the reforms stagnate. reasonable rents. Considering that land redis- If, therefore, an answer is sought to the ques- tribution has never really been the intent of tion posed at the opening of this paragraph, the Bihar's reform legislation, one questions the answer can be provided only by the political position of the government of Bihar in decisionmakers of Bihar. They know what the smothering the minimum reform under the situation is, and they know what needs to be pretext of maintaining peace in the country- done to reverse it. side. It is doubtful, too, if the owners were thereby well served. Nothing really has changed except for the hasty papering over of agrarian Summary tensions. The new status quo, which is worse than before the enactment of tenurial meas- Until only yesterday, so to speak, Purnea and ures, can hardly endure; after all, it rests on Saharsa were very backward rural districts. nothing more substantial than an official fiat They are less so now with the Kosi irrigation against rocking the boat. Even though the scheme gradually coming into its own. Basic cards are presently stacked against the tenants, technological changes are taking place on hold- another round in their tug of war with the ings with an assured water supply and farmers owners is likely. When the confrontation with resources to acquire other inputs. Tube comes, the chances are more than even that a wells which contribute the same end are in price will be paid for a posture of no conces- their infancy; but the trend, slow though it is, sion and no compromise. As to the tenants, is in the desirable direction. The expansion of they have nothing to lose. the wheat acreage and the rise in yields have If strife is the eventual outcome, is there been dramatic. Although not nearly as ad- anything to prevent it and who is going to do vanced technologically as Punjab, in its essen- the preventing? The answer is simple enough- tials and on a more limited scale the Purnea the by now well-known causes obstructing good experience is a repetition of the Punjab story. legislation and good implementation should be The high-yielding paddy varieties have not removed. The difficulty with this suggestion is done nearly as well, but improvements may be that it has been made repeatedly and unsuc- anticipated following the adjustments they re- cessfully by the Planning Commission, the quire. Aside from the "hard" evidence that the union minister of food and agriculture, and by Green Revolution is under way, the idea is fairly other competent observers. Furthermore, this widespread among a good many nonpartici- inaction cannot be attributed to a lack of ex- pating farmers that it provides a method of perts, lack of pertinent data, or lack of funds. getting away from meager crops, low income, These, to be sure, are not in abundant supply and poor living. While the majority of farmers but they are not crucial to the failure of the in Purnea and Saharsa are still rated as "back- reforms. What is crucial is that in Bihar the ward," the impression is that those who recog- leading politicians have not really accepted the nize the implications of the changes are not in idea of tenurial changes as a means to improve a minority. The relatively quick change in the conditions of the tenantry. And yet only mental attitude, induced not by the ineffectual they are the authentic makers or unmakers of extension service but by what the eye can see reform. In Bihar as elsewhere they can provide and the ear can hear, is in itself a significant the impetus or lack of impetus or draw the result of the new technology in action. line between reform and "reform" by endowing The Green Revolution is limited in scope or failing to endow sound economic measures both as to acreage and participants, and this is with the indispensable political support. In likely to remain so even when the irrigation Purnea as in Bihar as a whole, the necessary scheme is completed and tube wells enjoy vast precondition doesn't exist, at least as of this expansion. A goodly number of cultivators will writing. It is not lacking during the election continue to have water problems and will re- 460 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 main with insufficient resources to enable them tion but one reason. Yet it cannot be denied to partake of the new technology. The existing that one of the consequences of the Green institutional credit arrangements with their Revolution is the weakening still further of well-known bias in favor of the big owners, the tenants' already very tenuous hold on the the generally poor state of the cooperative land. Despite this, the owners fear that some credit societies, the predominant role of the day certain pertinent tenurial provisions might moneylenders providing loans at usurious in- be resurrected and their rights circumscribed. terest rates, and the lowly and insecure position This is in itself a sufficient cause to opt for the of the tenantry-all these preclude the par- hired hands whenever possible. Wages have ticipation in the new package of practices of doubled in the past few years, but very little the vast majority of the cultivators. Recog- of it can be attributed to the new technology; nizing the promise, yet with no access to it, the principal cause is the rise in the cost of creates its own grave social and economic prob- living. The net gain over and above this is lems, some of which are readily observable. insignificant; and, coupled with the lack of Chief among them is the disparity in levels of alternative occupations, the conditions of farm production and income. Unlike Punjab, the labor compare only with the very worst pre- Green Revolution in Kosi area has still a long vailing among farm labor in India. There is way to go, and the polarization on this account nothing in the offing by way of remedy through is still limited. What is worse is that Purnea higher wages. Even if such were officially pre- and Saharsa districts are burdened with an ac- scribed, who would enforce them? It has been cumulation of problems, the sum of which is rightly observed that "Those who dodge the sufficiently serious to give one pause about the rent laws with impunity will also evade the consequences of being merely an onlooker at wage legislation. The real question is not how better production, higher income, and better to raise the wages but how to put teeth into any living. The inevitable tensions that this breeds new law that is passed." are heightened by the facts that the new tech- This comment applies perfectly, if unfortu- nology applies equally beneficially on small as nately, to the years-long attempts to provide well as large holdings and that the overwhelm- the tenants of Kosi area with security of tenure, ing majority of the cultivators are in the fair rents, and a modest measure of land owner- former category. Unless agricultural policy ship. Though the owners will not succeed in widens the scope of the Green Revolution, dispossessing the sharecroppers, turning them higher farm output and rising incomes are into hired hands as they have succeeded in bound to be restricted to a relatively small shifting tenants into the status of sharecrop- number of farmers. pers, they have nevertheless managed to de- The new technology in Kosi area, whether prive them of the elemental rights to which in being or only anticipated, has pushed up they are entitled under the reform legislation. land values very sharply, particularly where This being so, most of the 25 percent of the productivity is rising. Contrary to the experi- cultivated land of Kosi so held can undergo no ence of Punjab, rents have not risen; they are significant change in modernization and pro- already so exorbitant that there is no room ductivity. By the same token, the economic for further enhancement. But for reasons al- position of the sharecroppers will remain at ready stated, the sharecroppers neither gain their current low levels. And there is nothing materially from the Green Revolution nor are in the picture to indicate any deviation from more secure on the plots they cultivate. They the existing conditions, certainly not through are, if anything, worse off because as ownership the already subverted due process of law insofar of improved land is coming to be prized very as tenurial measures are concerned. Whether highly, so is the mounting determination of this state of affairs can endure as the Green owners not to permit the tenants to share in Revolution extends to all irrigated land, widen- the rights of the land they cultivate. Their ing the gap between the well-off and the poor, preference is to be rid of them. No clean sweep is problematic. The record oi the stresses and of this nature will take place; there are too strains between owner and tenants in Kosi is many tenants to deal with successfully, to men- not an augury for a peaceful and purposeful Bihar Field Trip 461 development of the area. Chronic poverty does scheme has become Bihar's symbol of techno- lead to political instability, which can in turn logical advancement and its claims enjoy a cer- upset the foundation upon which the precarious tain priority. It is likely, too, that, under the economic life of Kosi rests. energetic and far-sighted leadership of the de- The small farmers of Purnea and Saharsa velopment commissioner of Purnea, what can districts are better off than the sharecroppers be done to assist these farmers toward agricul- or hired farm labor, and for the good reason tural modernization will be done. But one sus- that they own the land. Yet enough evidence pects that, in the main, the Green Revolution has been marshaled to show that as producers in Kosi will proceed in its usual selective way: they fall short of the desirable, and shorter high production and high income for the full still of the full participation in the Green Revo- participants and low production and low in- lution that many would like. It may be recalled come for the noninvolved. The inevitable spill- that hybrids prosper only on irrigated land. over will be there, it is hoped, among the On this score, the prospect of irrigating 40 farmers who somehow managed to add inputs percent of Purnea's cultivated land and 80 per- to Kosi water or to a tube well. As for the dry- cent of Saharsa's should be encouraging for the land farmers, they will have to shift for them- widespread adoption of the new technology. selves in the more or less accustomed fashion. This might be so provided that in addition to A large-scale publicly assisted tube well pro- water the would-be beneficiaries have resources gram could raise the number of participants as for all other inputs. And this is what the multi- it did in Punjab and with a signal increase in tudes of the small farmers are short of even productivity. But looking at the Green Revolu- when they have water. This may not be the tion and the demands it imposes on the one sole reason why nearly four-fifths of them do hand and the variegated group of claimants for not use new inputs, but it is an important rea- its favor on the other, the benefits are bound son. In relation to modernization of agriculture, to be unevenly distributed in Kosi just as they at least some of them can be likened to tenants are in Punjab or wherever the new technology who receive land under a reform and nothing is practiced. else to go with it. Willy-nilly, many of them As a technological phenomenon, the Green will be "selected out" from the purview of the Revolution at this stage cannot be faulted, for Green Revolution. Kosi already demonstrates salutory changes in The administrators of Kosi are keenly aware productivity and crop patterns. For the same of this state of affairs; and, to shore up the reason, one must accept the need to choose position of the small farmers, they estimate between neglecting development in one area that, in terms of short-term loans, Purnea will in order to encourage a more rapid rate of require Rsl80 million and Saharsa Rs127 mil- growth in another more suitable one. What lion. Instead of the conventional sources of doesn't fare well in this logic of development institutional credit, a corporation such as the is the notion of economic justice. The best Agriculture Development Corporation "or a that can be said in justification is that, in a subsidiary branch of the Agro-Industries Corpo- resource-poor country, economic necessity and ration may be set up in each of the districts . . . economic justice do not often ride in tandem. for advancing long-term, medium term, and But the story could read differently if the time short-term loans" and for a great variety of comes when the Green Revolution is no longer other services ranging from storage, marketing, only a combination of a set of economic factors processing, and up to and including acceptance in which the human condition has no place or of deposits "to mop up the surplus capital in is diluted beyond recognition. This point is the agricultural sector." made because, within the limitations of the If such an agency is established, it is ques- Kosi rural setting, for example, and precisely tionable whether it could provide financing on because of the presence of the Green Revolu- so large a scale. Purnea and Saharsa are not the tion, not a little could be done to relieve the only claimants on scarce resources. One can, lot of the small farmers, the plight of the share- however, visualize some expansion of credit croppers, and the subhuman condition of the over the past because the Kosi irrigation rural proletariat. All said and done, it is not 462 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 the fault of the new technology that the credit is important is that it can mitigate them, and service doesn't serve those for whom it was this is a minimum program worth striving for. originally intended, that the extension service If the Green Revolution is to broaden its scope exists largely in name only, that tenurial legis- while maintaining peaceful progress in the lation is deliberately miscarried, or that wage countryside, achieving the minimum program scales are hardly sufficient to keep soul and along with the technological changes should body together. All these are primarily man- be the first order of business in Kosi as else- made institutional inequities which, if cor- where. If this sounds like just another "should rected, could fuse a measure of economic or be done," the answer is that we know of no social justice with economic necessity, thereby other remedy in sight. The consequences of adding another essential dimension to the leaving things alone are as evident as they are Green Revolution. That it will not resolve all disturbing, and any hope to reverse or mini- or most of the problems of the disadvantaged mize their baleful effects lies in a determined is not crucial, simply because egalitarianism in effort to pursue the essentials of rural stability rural India is not even good as a slogan; what and productivity. 52. Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations When each year the consortium of aid-giving nations to India meets under the chairmanship of the World Bank, one of the basic documents for consideration is the annual report prepared by the World Bank's resident mission in India. This was Ladejinsky's contribution to the annual report, "Economic Situation and Prospects of India," dated April 21, 1970. The audience differed from that of many other of Ladejinsky's reports from New Delhi, which were circulated among Bank staff only, and this helps account for both an overlap in subject matter and a difference in tone. The "broader considerations" treated here are the social implications of technological change, as distinct from the productive and economic aspects treated elsewhere in the report. These social implications are dealt with under four major subheadings-the Green Revolution, land reform, cooperative credit, and rural poverty programs. The same major topics recur in his contributions to the annual reports in succeeding years. Some Social Implications nearly one-half of the increase in output."' The of Technical Change recent rate of growth, therefore, is no mean achievement, even if it does signify that the WHATEVER THE DIFFICULT PROBLEMS on the job is more difficult than sometimes portrayed. agricultural research side, they do not reflect The technological knowledge for a more rapid adversely on the technical prescriptions of the rate of growth is better understood now than new strategy. The following, too, may be use- at any previous time, and the same holds for fully kept in mind: "maintaining the historical trend in foodgrain production means a sharply 1. Martin M. Abel, Agriculture in India in the increased rate of growth in productivity per 1970's (The Ford Foundation, February 1970). See hectare to offset the fact that net cropped area also R. S. Minhas, "Fourth Plan: Objectives and has not increased much in the 1960s and that Policy Frame," Commerce Pamphlet 20-21 (Sep- in the 1950s the increase in area accounted for tember 1969). Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 463 rice as well; the illusions that it can be achieved India's agricultural new deal. To this extent quickly have been largely dissipated. Even the and barring monsoon failure, self-sufficiency in growing social stirrings in the village may work foodgrains could become a realistic target for to the same end. And this is not to overlook the 1970s, even if not in 1971-72 as is assumed the presence of all the promising elements in some quarters. previously noted. But if all this is to bear fruit, As noted earlier, the advances in Indian the well-known "must be dones" need to be agriculture have taken place not in a vacuum stressed once again. These are, among others, but in a given framework of resources, inputs, the high priorities in research and water sup- level of technical knowledge, and organization. ply and water management, political commit- As a general proposition and in practice, the ments relevant to social and economic rural soundness of this approach cannot be con- problems, and consideration of the acute re- tested. The results, though very uneven, do gional imbalances. That Punjab, Haryana, point to the renewal of Indian agriculture. The Western Uttar Pradesh, and pockets of Tamil fact that rice, coarse grains, and cash crops Nadu, Andhra, and Maharashtra have recently have not come up to anticipation presents seri- developed an investment capacity sufficient to ous difficulties but they are not insuperable. sustain a self-generating growth rate does not The muscle of the country's agriculture as al- mean that the rest of the country is in any- ready developed shows what can be accom- thing like an equally comfortable position. plished, though at a much greater concentration Moreover, as the country moves from subsis- of effort, beginning with the yet-unimproved tence to commercial agriculture, the risks as varieties, the more complicated water prob- well as the gains are multiplied. In a technical lems, and on through a host of other technical sense this calls for making fewer mistakes, problems. Yet, without minimizing the impor- which in turn depends upon the transmission tance of attaining food self-sufficiency and of useful information to millions of farmers raising the output of cash crops, this is not the from the relatively few scientists and tech- sole issue facing the country as it proceeds in nicians as well as an extension service of a that direction. The more difficult and vital much higher caliber than presently available. questions calling for answers are these: Who If not all that needs be done can or will be among the farmers is largely responsible for done, careful selectivity and concentration on the additional output; how is the additional a few strategic areas might suffice in the cir- income being distributed; and how can rising cumstances. The Small Farmers' Development productivity be integrated with the welfare of Agency now in its early stages of formation the farm community as a whole. Put another is an example. Three-fourths of India's culti- way, the troublesome issue that is beginning to vated acreage is not irrigated; the gradual make itself felt is the quality of the Green introduction of better practices into the dry Revolution. areas and what that might take is one of the The Green Revolution is mainly confined to numerous instances of what might be done. In land with an assured water supply, larger hold- general, further advances can be accomplished ings, and farmers with resources (both owned depending how public policy, particularly pub- and borrowed) sufficiently large to take care lic policy in the states, deals with the technical, of all other inputs. Such farmers, including economic, social, and organizational problems those partially participating in the new package which the new strategy has thrust upon the of practices, are relatively few; even in a tech- farmers in different farm-size groups, func- nologically advanced state like Punjab, their tioning under greatly varying conditions. Genu- total number probably doesn't exceed 10 to 20 inely dealt with, the Green Revolution might percent of all the cultivators. But such is the come into its own not only as a better technical recent shift in attitude generated by the inno- tool but also as a tool in the hands of a much vations that the great majority of the culti- greater number of cultivators. And the latter vators who are not practicing them for lack of is crucial, for the larger the coverage of the resources also recognize that they offer a Green Revolution, the narrower the disparities method of getting away from meager crops, among cultivators clamoring for shares in low income, and poor living. Recognizing the 464 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 promise but not sharing in it creates its own impunity without courting trouble, but there is social and economic problems, some of which evidence that the long-run process of shifting are readily observable. Chief among them is tenants to the rank of sharecroppers and land- the widening gap between the recently self- less is being accelerated as more of the bigger enriched and the mass of the poor farmers. owners become participants of the Green Thus, directly or indirectly the Green Revolu- Revolution. In such circumstances, security of tion has pushed to the fore rather suddenly and tenure, fair rents, and modest measures of land dramatically the nagging question of rural in- ownership provided by the reform laws are less come distribution. The inevitable tensions that attainable than in the recent past. In the end, this breeds are heightened by the fact that the one other consequence of the Green Revolu- new technology applies equally beneficially on tion is that it has brought into sharper focus small as well as large holdings and that the the vexatious tenurial issues while at the same overwhelming majority of the cultivators are in time further weakening the tenants' uncertain the former category. The distributional and hold on the land they cultivate. other awkward implications of a progressive The new type of agriculture has important agriculture are well understood by the govern- consequences for labor. These are discussed in ment of India, although much less so by the this report in the chapter on employment governments of individual Indian states. Out [omitted). It is in fact difficult to foretell now of deep concern xvith these problems, the gov- what the net impact will be of all the changes ernment understands equally well that, in order which are going on. Certainly the new tech- to raise production, narrow down economic nology demands and enables farmers to afford polarization, and insure peace in the country- mechanical assistance, but it also creates de- side, agricultural policy must widen the scope mand for labor. Thus, while one should ques- of the Green Revolution. tion the view that the Green Revolution will While the bigger farmers are producing the necessarily help to solve the employment prob- surpluses and profiting handsomely from the lem, if one comes to the conclusion that the improved package of practices, the same cannot outlook is for an overcrowded, low-wage farm be said about many other farmers, including, of labor market as the 1970s unfold, this too can course, the small farmers and particularly the hardly be blamed on the new technology. tenants, sharecroppers, and the landless agricul- There are other imbalances long part and tural laborers. The traditional handicaps of the parcel of the rural scene. The new technology small farmers aside, the new strategy has ex- has undoubtedly served to tilt some to a criti- acerbated the notoriously troublesome tenurial cal point, and the biased distribution of all problems. Where the new farm practices are kinds of resources in favor of the more affluent in vogue, land values have risen three-, four-, cultivators is one of them. But after all is said or fivefold; and unrestricted control over such and done, the imbalance or, to put it more land by the owners has never been more prized, accurately, the pervasive rural poverty must be As a consequence not only have rents risen to attributed to the sum total of all the social, re- as high as 70 percent of the crop in some places, ligious, economic, and political arrangements but security of tenure and other rights in land which govern the village and which are in the tenant might claim are in greater jeopardy turn mirrored in the character of the Green now. Where not too long ago the principal Revolution. In such conditions on top of scarce issues between owners and tenants were the national resources, willy-nilly agricultural policy size of the rent and the degree to which the tends to encourage a more rapid rate of growth tenants or sharecroppers could remain on the in a promising area at the expense of a less land undisturbed, now Green Revolution land promising one. Economic justice, then, almost is so profitable that owners would like to get rid inevitably takes a back seat. This said, there of the tenants altogether to resume the land is no necessary immutability in current agri- for self-cultivation and to opt for the plentiful cultural policies. The strains they impose and supply of hired labor which has no claims on the discontent they feed could be eased if the the land whatsoever. There are too many ten- time comes when modernization of agriculture ants or sharecroppers to deal with them with is a combination of technical factors and of the Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 465 long-awaited man-made adjustments in the in- all its parts would mesh in a more liberating stitutional agricultural framework. When the sphere of greater promise and better perform- question is raised, therefore, where the Green ance. Admittedly, preceding this phase are po- Revolution stands in relation to the nontech- litical considerations and decisions which are nical items of production, the following may studded with some big "ifs." If their climina- be claimed with reasonable certainty: It is not tion depended only on the apprehension of the fault of the new technology that the credit the government of India about rural institu- cooperatives do not serve well those for whom tional disabilities, the current political climate it was primarily intended, that the extension could usher in a desirable breakthrough. But it jervice continues to languish, that the pan- is the state governments which have the sole chayats are essentially political rather than de- responsibility for matters agricultural, and it is velopmental bodies, that security of tenure is they who have so far displayed little interest in still a prime concern of many tenants, that dealing with the touchy subject of rural in- rentals are exorbitant, that ceilings on farm land equities. If they continue in the same vein, the are notional, or that farm labor wage rates in full potential of the Green Revolution will not many areas barely keep up with the cost of be realized even if India becomes self-sufficient living. To repeat, the Green Revolution did in food. In present-day India with the rising not spawn these conditions, whereas various clamor for more widely shared benefits of rural acts of commission and omission have surely growth, achieving food self-sufficiency in the a share in the debilitating forms they assumed, present manner is much less than enough. The The perennial question how to deal with underprivileged small farmers, tenants, share- these problems is upon the country once again. croppers, and the landless can be left to fend As there is no recipe for "instant development," for themselves only at the price of overt dis- dramatic and fast solutions are not in the pic- content, which no longer lies in the realm of ture. On the other hand, some of the conditions theoretical assumptions of interested reformers. for amelioration are riper than in the past, pre- This, as remarked earlier, is better appreciated cisely because social consciousness and political now by the government of India than in the rights have properly made people more im- past, How much longer will the state govern- patient and more demanding. In relation to ments find inaction politically profitable and at agriculture, this is a consequence that extends what price-to this question there is no ready beyond the Green Revolution. More specifically, answer. it is reflected in the stage India has reached, It is in this connection that three particular well summed up in these words: "The real aspects of the agricultural scene may be dis- divide in India today is between traditionalism cussed because of their importance to the im- and modernity, revivalism and progress, con- provement of India's agricultural society- servators and innovators, the superstitious and improvements not only in production and the scientific and rational."2 As for India as a employment but also in the quality of rural whole, so for the countryside, and with the life. These are the situations of the small ,possibility that (a) the new forces will prevail, farmer, farm credit, and land reform. (b) 'modernity" in agriculture stands for a good deal more than the further upgrading of the well-to-do farmers, and (c) "practical cir- The Small Farmer Program cumstances would compel the necessary cor- rections."1 Who is a "small farmer" and "smallness" in If this is indeed so, then-reverting to the farming are not easy to identify, and there are main theme-the scope of the new technology about as many definitions as there are econo- could be considerably enlarged. In that event mists trying to define them. To cite but one example: A farmer in India with 3 to 4 acres of irrigated land is possibly better off than one 2. B. G. Verghese, "An Agenda for India," The with 10 to 15 acres of dry land. Perhaps the I-lindusian Times (January 18, 1970). most meaningful definition is that "a small 3. Ibid. farm is one which does not provide a net farm 466 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 income sufficient for the subsistence of the the following aims in mind: promotion of farm family."' The size of this group of farmers small farm interests before official bodies; en- is estimated at approximately two-thirds of all suring the availability of inputs and services the farm households, and they account for to these farmers; and helping design production about 20 percent of the cultivated land. What- programs to fit the specific needs of a group of ever the differences in the size of holdings, all farmers in a given geographic area while tailor- owned, partly tenanted or all tenanted, quality ing credit and supplies to its requirements in of land, cropping pattern, and so forth, the the light of improved farm practices. group as a whole is characterized by the fol- Financially and organizationally, the scheme lowing features: badly fragmented holdings of could not serve all of the 40 million or so farm sometimes more but mostly less than 5 acres; families in need of assistance, particularly the little irrigation or none at all; insecurity of farmers with less than 2.5 acres of dry land. tenure; low productivity and low income; poor The immediate stress, therefore, is primarily- implements; insufficient access to credit; mal- though not exclusively-on the "potentially nutrition to the point of affecting productive viable small farmers" whose problems are more efficiency; underemployment; and, not surpris- manageable. At present, the agency's goal is 45 ingly, the average per acre amount of capital pilot projects or separate agencies spread expenditures a mere Rs75 as against Rs716 throughout the country. The selection is based among big farmers." Most of these farmers have on criteria favoring higher productivity and hardly any margin left above subsistence living, essential assistance provided by the projects and saving for investment is almost precluded, and the states where the projects are located. The corollary of this is that the majority of Since the aim is to cover approximately 30,000 them are bypassed by the new technology and to 50,000 farm families per project, the scheme their assets are in a state of gradual deteriora- contemplates the rehabilitation of 1.5 to 2 mil- tion. In order to provide for basic needs, they lion families by the end of the fourth five-year must compete for outside employment for a siz- plan. On the financial side, a total of Rs670 able portion of their income. The sum total of million or Rsl5 million per project has been all these inadequacies constitutes the central allocated. In relation to small farmer pilot problem of small farms and small farmers. projects, the contribution of the center is ex- For a long time this issue has been in limbo pected to be considerably augmented by those except for a great deal of theoretical considera- of the state governments. This on the top of tion in academic circles and decidedly tinged the anticipated institutional credit and credit with pessimism about shifting it to a practical from commercial banks, the center's Rsl5 mil- plane. Now, though, the government of India lion per scheme is likely to be increased four- is in the midst of doing something about it. or fivefold. "Distributive" justice and the urgency to allay Getting the program off the ground is prov- discontent are some of the considerations. But ing to be time-consuming, but projects in the basic factor that makes action possible now Purnea (Bihar), Darjeeling (West Bengal), is the presence of the new technology. While and Chindwara (Madhya Pradesh) have been it widened the gap between the rich and poor initiated, while a number are in preparation in cultivators, it also demonstrated that, given seven other states. For all practical purposes requisite inputs, its beneficial effects can be they are operated by the states. The chairman applied with equal success on small holdings of a local project is the collector of the district as well. It is the combination of all these ele- or the development commissioner of the area. ments that has brought about the creation of All other active participants on the manage- the Small Farmer Development Agency with inent side are the district officers of the Agri- culture and Animal Husbandry Department of 'I. V. M. Dandekar, foreword to the Seminar on the state and the heads of local credit coopera- Problems of Small Farmers (Indian Society of Agri- tives. There are two representatives from the cultural Economics, 1968), p. ix. center-one from the Planning Commission 5. "All-India Rural Debt and Investment Sur- and the other from the Ministry of Agriculture. vey," Reserve Bank of India Bulletin (June 1965). As part of the administrative setup, the projects Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 467 do not intend to do what other appropriate ing the "proper" small farmers is enough to organizations are already doing; but direct par- give one pause. The effective gearing of ma- ticipation is not excluded, especially in the area terial and human assistance belongs in the of water supply, which is the most important same category. Besides, many a small farmer is input no matter in which district the program a tenant farmer or a sharecropper, and how will operate. Another anticipated direct func- troublesome a problem this is was well ex- tion of the agency relates both to the ownership pressed by the guiding spirit of the Small and leasing out on a no-profit-no-loss basis of Farmer Development Agency, B. Venkatappiah: a variety of equipment ranging from tractors to There are certain prerequisites which are sprayers and to servicing of equipment owned even more fundamental than, say, the infra- by farmers. structure of credit, marketing, storage and It is recognized that credit for both con- communications. These have references to sumption and production purposes of the small tenants, sub-tenants and more especially farmers is the centerpiece of the effort, but sharecroppers and are concerned with such emphasis wbasic requirements as the existence of land each agency has obligated itself to assist the records and the implementation of land re- credit cooperatives with special funds and also forms. It is being increasingly borne in on to hire additional staff "to ensure that the fi- those concerned with the formulation of nancing is undertaken as an operation of super- these projects in different parts of India vised credit." This is a departure from previous that, where the potential beneficiaries of practices and a significant one if implemented. land reforms are concerned, the Small Annual short-term loans of Rs500 and one Farmers' Development Agency will be virtu- long-term loan of Rsl,500 during the five-year ally inoperative in various sectors, including period is part of the scheme. Compared with the important one of credit, unless a number the past, these will be generous advances, for of measures are first undertaken in the few farmers in this category were known to project area in regard to land records and receive such accommodations. If the new ap- land reforms." proach succeeds in covering 1.5 million or more farm families, it is estimated that the To these formidable barriers one can add a total amount of such loans in the last year of string of others, such as the uncertainties about the plan may exceed Rsl billion, or roughly the expertise rendered by the experts; the lack- 20 percent of all the coop credit in 1968-69. luster performance of the credit cooperatives, In addition, the union government has particularly in the face of added responsibili- formulated another scheme to render assistance ties; the same about the extension service; how to submarginal farmers and landless farm unequivocal the state governments will be in laborers. The former fall in the category of supporting the program; and so on. holdings up to 2.5 acres and the latter are those To touch on these items is to note that the who earn more than 50 percent of their income transformation of the small farmers into non- from agricultural labor. The scheme calls for subsistence farmers is bound to have all manner forty projects and outlay of Rs175 million, and of snags. But however great the handicaps, they it expects to cover approximately 1.6 million in no way argue for the dismissal of the pro- individuals out of an estimated total of 52 grain out of hand or for taking the position million. More significant than the projects just that subsistence farming is beyond help be- mentioned is the anticipation that they will cause "it is futile to search for the solution of induce the states to mount similar programs of subsistence agriculture which is not also a solu- their own. tion of general underdevelopment. Correspond- Such, in brief, are the problems of the small ingly, that which is a solution for general farmers and the mechanism to deal with them. It is much too early to venture a judgment how 6. B. Venkatappiah, Planning Commission, ad- this effort will be translated into action and dress before 29th Annual Conference of the Indian implemented. The difficulties facing the agency Society of Agricultural Economics, December 30, are enormous. The task of picking and choos- 1969, p. 25. 468 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 economic underdevelopment will also be a solu- Credit tion for subsistence agriculture."7 The plausi- bility of the argument, as the difficulties The Bank's 1968 economic report touched on mentioned, hold only so long as the government the essentials of rural credit provided by the has done nothing to counter them. This speaks cooperatives. The intervening year shows no for the past. What is new and significant is change in their rather inadequate performance, that, for the first time in the history of the although from the point of view of loans ad- country's agriculture, this particular class of vanced they have continued to forge ahead. farmers has been singled out with a view to However, perhaps more significant for rural rehabilitation. Whether at the end of the fourth credit in 1969 than the expansion of short and five-year plan the targets are attained is not all medium-term credit by Rs600 million was the that important. More immediately important is publication of the monumental and searching that these farmers will no longer be neglected. "Report of the All-India Rural Credit Review There is just a chance that the testing process Committee." Apart from its thorough analysis may yield useful results, even though the pro- of the current state of institutional credit and grain, to start with, deals with farmers who live the future credit requirements, the report con- and work in hostile conditions and surround- tains a number of conclusions, both familiar ings and are "backward." and new. Chief among the latter is that the As against these constraints, there are the credit cooperatives can no longer remain the lessons of the new practices with their proven sole mainstay of institutional credit and the transferability of experience and response to only answer to private moneylending. This economic incentives, which apply to all types sharp break with a traditional policy is due of farmers in propitious circumstances. On the not only to the manner in which the coopera- plus side, too, are at least some of the lessons tives have been discharging their tasks but learned from the administrative arrangement mainly because of the significant changes in and drive exemplified by the implementation the rural economy and the anticipated huge of the new strategy. Without minimizing the credit demands, which the cooperatives could tenurial drawbacks, the agency which is directly not possibly meet. involved in forcing the issue into the open may The image of the credit cooperatives does yet prove something of a catalyst in effecting not fare well in the committee's report. judged desirable changes. Finally, it would be foolhardy quantitatively, they are a landmark in the to expect the impossible in the sense that all countryside and it could not do without them. problems of the small farmers can be resolved Between 1951-52 and 1968-69 their share in satisfactorily and within a five-year period. total credit used by farmers increased from 3 Partial response to some of them may spell the to between 33 and 35 percent, membership difference between a firm be'ginning and fail- from 5 to 28 million, number of societies from ire. It is recognized that much of the above is 100,000 to 172,000, and short- and medium- speculative; what is not speculative is that the term loans from 140 to 4,900 million in 1969. small farmer sector, even if selectively deter- On the plus side, too, is the long-term credit. mined, has been placed on the agenda of India's provided by the land development banks which priorities. This is in itself an advance. The pro- increased from Rsl,700 million in 1966 to gram therefore is eminently worth trying, with- 3,620 million in 1969. The value of farm inputs out waiting either for improvements of the distributed by the cooperatives rose from about condition of the village poor via the long Rs360 million in 1960-61 to Rs2,500 million drawn-out process of an overall economic de- in 1968-69; of these fertilizer accounted for velopment of India or for a sharp decline of Rs2,000 million, or 60 percent of the total con- population pressure on the land. sumption of fertilizer in the country. Lastly, the Agricultural Refinance Corporation in the 7. M. L. Dantwala, "Problems of Subsistence past couple of years has improved its stand as Farm Economy: The Indian Case," Seminar on Prob- a financier of long-range agricultural projects lems of Small Farmers (Indian Society of Agricul- with credit of Rs790 million in 1968-69 as tural Economics, June 1968), p. 6. against an average of RsOO million during the Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 469 first four years of its existence, beginning in Much of the above is attributed to poor 1963. management and poor leadership of the credit These accomplishments cannot be underesti- cooperatives and cooperative banks. All these mated, and the credit cooperatives remain the are familiar charges. What is less well known main source of credit to the farmer borrowers is the political character of the credit coopera- or the aspiring borrowers. But the global figures tives and its negative effects on credit disburse- cannot hide the fact that qualitatively the co- ment. In the words of the committee's report: operative credit system is replete with major this often implies that individuals not be- hortcomings. Despite the fact that many more longing to the particular political parties or farmers are benefiting from them, not more factions are virtually out of the scope of than 40 percent of the membership borrows cooperative credit, Another disturbing factor from the coops; the tie-in between credit and is what amounts to political interference in production is rather weak; distribution of credit the working of cooperative institutions such is often below reasonable standards of timeli- as central cooperative banks. For reasons ness, adequacy, and dependability; cooperative- Such as this, again, the assumption that the owned capital is 27 percent of their working cooperatives could meet the credit demands capital, and dependence upon funds from the of all creditworthy cultivators has proved Reserve Bank and other official financial insti- untrue or only partially true. Even where tutions goes on; mobilization of deposits is far technically all could be served, politically short of the feasible; and overdues account for only some have benefited. one-third of the outstanding loans, causing the credit line to be choked up and credit restricted. The strictures against the existing coopera- The central cooperative banks do no better than tive credit system come at a time when new the primary cooperative societies; out of a total developments are calling for a vast increase in of 344 central cooperative banks, as many as rural financing. These are the Green Revolu- 67 accumulated overdues exceeding 50 percent tion with its augmented requirements, a rising of the loans granted; and an estimated third of trend towards more long-term credit, and the these banks have no reason for existence. requirements of huge numbers of small farmers Worthy of note, too, is that the more prosper- who have little or no credit standing with the ous states are as derelict in repayment as are cooperatives. In the light of this, the committee the poorer states. Many credit cooperatives are estimates that the short-term requirements of such in name only. While their number has the farmers in 1973-74, both in kind and in been reduced, with an eye to weeding out the cash, will amount to about Rs20 billion or weak ones, from 212,000 in 1961-62 to 172,000 nearly fivefold compared with current advances. in 1967-68, another 50,000 are "sick" or slated Since this type of loan can be utilized most ad- for the mortuary. Finally, the discrimination vantageously only if supported by medium- and against small farmers and tenants goes on un- long-term loans for basic improvements of the checked. According to an official source: agricultural economy, such requirements be- 1969-70 and 1973-74 are estimated at Rs5 and The traditional emphasis on linking of Rsl5 billion, respectively. These anticipated credit to security offered by the borrower in huge demands for credit and how to meet the form of land and other tangible assets, them constitute the core of all the committee's exclusion of small farmers from the mem- deliberations, and its recommendations are tied bership of the cooperatives . . . absence of in with the problem of mobilizing additional tenancy records and prevalence of the sys- resources and how to disburse them properly. tem of oral tenancies are among the major Part of the effort to gather in such resources factors that have led to the denial of ade- is expected from the land development banks quate credit to small farmers.8 with Rs7 billion, the Agricultural Refinance Corporation with Rs2 billion, and the commer- cial banks with Rs2 to 4 billion during the 8. Fourth Five-Year Plan, "Cooperation and fourth five-year plan. Most of the remainder Community Development," p. 13. will depend on the cooperatives, and the im- 470 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 mediate concern of the Review Committee is ticular bank's concentration on a given area. to correct all that has gone wrong with the Direct bank financing of a multitude of indi- existing cooperative credit structure while at vidual farmers is still very much in the future, the same time opening the rural credit field to and emphasis will continue to be on direct and new institutions. The recommendations about indirect financing of large projects and on i cooperatives are essentially a reiteration of the sizable clientele among the large owners of familiar theme that it is time they grew up to unencumbered and mortgageable properties. their obligation of better distribution of short- On this basis alone and concurrent with the term credit. Similar injunctions in the past experience gained in lending to agriculture, the were not productive, and it is far from certain prospects are that the commercial banks will whether the committee's newly laid down continue to extend their operations on a sig- policy for new institutions to compete with nificant scale. the cooperatives will yield much better results. Neither the commercial banks nor any other But whatever the outcome, it appears certain source of farm credit can displace the coopera- that the cooperatives will no longer continue tives. The new sources promise only indirect as the sole purveyor of institutional credit. The and limited answers to the coop disabilities. financial institutions, which are to help effect Whatever their weaknesses and however vo- this change while providing more badly needed ciferous the grumbling of the membership, resources, are the Reserve Bank once again, a they are too much a part of the rural scene; newly established Rural Electrification Corpora- the long-lived notion of their indispensability, tion, the land development banks, an expanded the variety of interests controlling them, and Agricultural Refinance Corporation, and the their supporters in the central and state gov- commercial banks-only recently involved as ernments are sufficiently strong to insure their an important source of rural credit. existence. Besides, they do render a useful ser- The movement of commercial banks into vice to those who do borrow from them. For the the rural areas was an inevitable development reasons stated, even the well-conceived recom- with or without nationalization, but until 1968 mendations in addition to the competition in- their role as providers of rural credit was centive offered by other institutions, may not negligible. The shift in their attitude followed suffice to effect drastic improvements in their the government's pre-nationalization policy of service. Without decrying the pressure to shed "social control" of the banks, which meant their old ways, the possible solution lies pri- tighter Reserve Bank supervision of their credit marily in the emerging new agricultural setting allocations "in keeping with the new national and different mental attitudes that are begin- priorities." The objective was to compel the ning to come into their own. Of sheer necessity, commercial banks to divert more of their re- therefore, the management of the cooperatives sources to the agricultural sector, considering and the distribution of credit will have to the high priority in national planning enjoyed adjust to the new situation. This is when a by agriculture and, of course, the profitability recommendation to correct past failures can of the new technology and the large scope for become effective. In the meantime this much is tapping rural deposits and for reinvestment certain: Regardless of how well or poorly the through credit advances for all manner of cooperatives will do in the future and whether inputs. or not the projected Rs40 billion of require- In addition to the sharp increase in rural ments are met, a great deal more money will be lending by the commercial banks, there was poured into rural credit in the next five years. also set up in April 1968 a joint Agricultural The "climate" of expanding agricultural pro- Finance Corporation with an authorized capital duction favors it. The quality of credit dis- of Rsl,000 million. The objective of the corpo- bursement is another matter, and its lopsided- ration is to finance every conceivable and well- ness and inequities may well persist. But the conceived agricultural project through the funds will be expanded just the same, assuming, selection of commercial banks as agents, the of course, that the scope of the new technology choice depending upon the strength of a par- is expanded way beyond its present limits. Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 471 Land Reforms and their enforcement. On the whole, for the time being agrarian reforms tell the same fa- This old and vexing problem was in the Indian miliar story of many a year past and just as picture in 1969 as in the preceding years- often recounted; but then as now its essentials except much more so. The past year did not are worth repeating once again. stand out as one of improvements in security If judged by the agrarian reform debates, of tenure, fair rentals, firmly recorded rights to one can easily assume that the entire reform the land, and so on. Nevertheless, it was a year movement in India is a failure. This is not the of soul searching and breast beating, of pa- case. As pointed out in last year's report, the :ience wearing thin, of tensions and outbreaks zamindari system" was abolished and 20 mil- of violence in the countryside, and of cases of lion cultivators and 40 percent of the cultivated forcible occupations of land or crops by ten- land of India came into direct relationship with ants and landless in the majority of the states the state, and for all practical purposes most of India. On the positive side, the year was of these cultivators are now owners of the land also notable for the conference of the state they cultivate. The elimination of this system chief ministers, sponsored by the prime minister with its absurdities and injustices was not diffi- for the sole purpose of impressing upon them cult to accomplish because it was imposed by that it was later than they thought and urging a colonial government which handed out prop- upon them an "integrated" land reform pro- erty rights to which neither the British nor gram for the current plan. It was the year, too, most of the recipients had any claim. A vastly when the Home Ministry, not usually given more difficult problem presented itself in pro- to involvement with such issues, plunged in to tecting the minimal, if basic, rights of the pinpoint the causes of agrarian unrest and urge tenants in the non-zamindari, ryotwari areas in no uncertain terms remedial measures to where owner proprietorship predominated. The allay fears of worse unrest. government of India did decide to provide All these worrisome trends are of long them with security of tenure, reduction of standing, but they acquired special relevance rents, and the conferment of ownership through as a result of adverse consequences of the new the familiar ceiling device of limiting the size technology in exacerbating social tensions in of holdings and distributing the surplus. Under the village for the reasons already given. If to the guidance and continuous prodding of the this is added the dimension of all other tenurial Planning Commission, the states with their sole disincentives, then one must recognize that the jurisdiction in agricultural matters have en- inequalities in rural India are likely to increase acted a voluminous body of legislation designed rather sharply. It is the combination of the old to meet these goals. and the new disabilities of farm groups ac- These efforts were not without their bene- counting for about 25 percent of the total farm fits; some 3 million tenants and sharecroppers population and roughly 20 percent of the culti- have become owners of an estimated 7 million vated land which is at the bottom of the overt acres of land, while here and there farmers discontent. It is the same combination that re- who continued to work someone else's land focused attention in 1969 on such questions as came to benefit from the legislative provisions. these: how to relieve the plight of cultivators The difficulty is that it is only "here and there," working mostly for a pittance, how to revive for, in the main and aside from the formidable their stagnating economies, and how to root administrative obstacles to implement the re- them securely and beneficially on the land they forms, they have been shot through with acts cultivate. of commission and omission which often ne- It would be pleasant to record that the 1969 gate the reforming intentions of successive preoccupations have yielded some tangible re- five-year plans. In Kerala, West Bengal, and sults, but nothing very much went beyond Tamil Nadu, legislation has been enacted or is verbal affirmations. Although a number of states are contemplating tenurial improvements, the evidence is far from clear as to the char- 9. See Economic Situation and Prospects of India acter of the would-be legislative enactments (April 18, 1969), footnote p. 29. 472 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1973 about to be enacted with an eye to plugging should be done, noting that the problem lies some loopholes; but how the new measures will in the lack of effective implementation. Im. be enforced remains to be seen. Despite these portant, too, was the emphasis on reforms new efforts and without going into too many effectively carried out along with access tc details, the implementation of the reforms in credit and other resources so that the newly most-not all-states is in serious difficulty. As obtained rights in the land could be produc- against the noted positive side, there are the tively used. wholesale evasions of ceiling provisions upon If the chief ministers were to commit them- which an increase in peasant ownership was to selves in earnest to the cause espoused by the rest, widespread eviction of tenants on the prime minister, the following would have to be so-called ground of "voluntary surrenders" of attended to: The preparation of a record of land by tenants, and the failure of the rental rights of ownership as well as tenancy, for with- provisions due to lack of security of tenure or out it no claim could be legally established and the right to remain on the land undisturbed no tenant could attain security of tenure; barring some exceptional conditions. One of written agreements instead of the prevailing the many glaring loopholes in the legislative oral agreements, rentals clearly defined, and enactments is the seemingly reasonable but ill- receipts for rents made mandatory; as has been defined right of a landlord to resume tenanted provided in some states, a tenant should not be land for what is euphemistically called "per- liable for eviction for nonpayment of rent when sonal cultivation." This has led to extensive arrears of rent are being recovered from the evictions or to "voluntary surrenders" of land. produce and other assets of the tenant; the The Green Revolution and the value it places right of resumption should be extinguished at on land clear of any claims by any individual least until "personal cultivation" is so defined other than the owner is yet another invitation as not to infringe on tenancy rights; "voluntary for tenant displacement. Such developments surrenders" should be so regulated that the are not productive of the kinds of incentives government or local authority can settle other among tenants that stand for good farming. But tenants on surrendered land if such takes apart from this and with the recognition that place; while the ineffective ceiling provisions new technology can potentially produce all the are practically beyond redemption, they should food India needs without recourse to tenanted be reexamined primarily with an eye to pre- land, there are nevertheless the pervasive ques- venting further concentration of land in rela- tions of social injustice, inequity, and political tively few hands; in any new rights gained by instability which come in the wake of reforms a tenant, access to water where available should that fall far short of their goals. be part of it, particularly as a means of utilizing It was the realization that the land reforms new farm practices; finally, the creation of the during the past two decades have not measured type of village body in which the representa- up to anticipations that led to the conference tion of tenants could become directly involved of the state chief ministers in November 1969. as an aid to the implementation of a reform. The prime minister left nothing unsaid to These are not novel measures; all are mainly stress the urgency of the meeting. In her view, concerned with security of tenure rather than "The warning of the times is that, unless the distribution of land. The failure to enforce the Green Revolution is accompanied by a revolu- ceiling provisions to create surplus land for tion based on social justice, I am afraid the distribution has been so general that any cor- Green Revolution may not remain green." Mrs. rective measures are probably futile. The recent Gandhi wanted the chief ministers to "act now (late February 1970) announcement of the when there is still time and hope" to implement Uttar Pradesh government and that of Tamil the reforms properly as part of the new agri- Nadu that they are contemplating the lowering cultural strategy, because "No single program of the ceilings is hardly the panacea it appears so intimately affects so many millions of our at first glance, even if such measures are en- people as land reforms." Proceeding from the acted. One must note not only the evasions, general to the specific, the prime minister litigations, and harassment produced by the pointed out the well-known ABC's of what ceiling measures in the past but also the dis- Agriculture-Some Broader Considerations 473 tinct possibility of diverting attention from that trend. In fact, the political hurdles may be the fundamental problem of how to achieve greater following the split of the Congress security of tenure. For these reasons, security Party. Reforms which were unattainable in the of tenure rather than redistribution of land is Congress heyday of undisputed authority are the main issue of reforming what has remained much more difficult of attainment now when unreformed in the agrarian structure of India. the support of the political leadership of this The enforcement of any of the proposals or that state, the bargaining involved, and the depends above all upon the political will of a price exacted become crucial to the governing party in power. Absence of this crucial factor power. Countering this logic of political devel- has been a major drawback in the past, and the opment is that not many years back agrarian conference of the chief ministers veered in the reform was not nearly the subject of political same direction. On the all-important question debate it is now. The widespread surrender of of preparing an up-to-date record of rights, land by tenants used to evoke hardly a ripple the "utmost priority" has been recommended of official concern-nowadays it is very likely but no time limit set. The prime minister's call to ensure a fight. It cannot be overlooked, there- for a commitment "not only to broad objectives fore, that the more recently pronounced reform but to meeting them by a certain definite date" stand of the ruling Congress Party can be a has been largely ignored. A very useful sug- deterrent against bargaining reforms away gestion of separate judicial machinery to deal from political considerations. with cases arising from implementation has Despite the mixed setting with the pre- not fared any better. The same may be said of ponderance of negative factors, it is reasonable measures to protect tenants from eviction, fair to conclude that the issue of reform will not rentals, and prevention of land resumption. remain in the doldrums. The tide of unrest is Looking back, therefore, at the results of the bound to rise and with it agitation and organi- conference, they are reminiscent of the familiar zation of the discontented by political parties, pattern of representatives of states subscribing both old and new, and not only the parties of in "principle" to much of what the reform the extreme left. In these circumstances, what proponents have to offer but shying away from states' legislatures normally refuse to enact and translating the principles into something con- enforce under the due process of law, they may crete. And it is the states which have the power well be compelled to grant under duress. Tamil to legislate, administer, and enforce land re- Nadu, for example, may be a case in point. form programs. Prior to the 1969 outbreaks of violence and The agrarian reform prospects for the 1970s loss of life, Tamil Nadu was reluctant to revise are certainly not bright, for only politicians its tenurial enactments in line with the sug- strategically placed make or unmake agrarian gestions of the Planning Commission; recent reforms. This is not to understate the fact that, indications are that it might, at long last, fall especially in a country like India, the economic in line. Rajasthan might be another straw in environment, population pressure on the land, the wind judging by the overt agrarian unrest and customary relationships of a long history in Ganganagan district and the chances of of caste and religious traditions exert great in- allaying it. There, opposition parties have fluence on what kind of legislation is written organized groups of underprivileged farmers to break institutional molds and what happens to make sure that the land about to be irrigated to it after enactment. They point, too, to the by the new Rajasthan canal is not auctioned back-breaking task of renewing the old farm off to the highest bidders but redistributed structure. But the fact that changes in that among the underprivileged at fixed prices. structure are inevitable does not invalidate the Under this pressure and in the hope of bring- main premise-that the content and imple- ing the agitation to an end, the government of mentation of agrarian reforms are a reflection Rajasthan was compelled to set up a committee of a particular balance of forces in a country. to conduct an on-the-spot probe into the ex- In India a balance conducive to reforms has isting rules for the allotment of land to poor been largely absent all along, and the immedi- farmers. The outcome of the committee's de- are future holds no great promise of reversing liberations remains to be seen, but the point to 474 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 stress is that even the concession of looking orderly legislative process. It is for this reason into the matter would not have taken place but that the Home Ministry envisions an "explo- for the agitation and organization of the farm- sion" in the countryside if these problems are ers by a variety of political parties. None of not dealt with vigorously and without delay. these cases nor the land and harvest grabbing "Explosion" may be long in coining or in its in West Bengal, Kerala, and similar instances literal sense it may not come at all. But the in a few other states are models of agrarian prospect of mounting instability and violence reformism. They are nothing of the kind, but it cannot be excluded-unless the states come to takes little imagination to see that the stage is realize that theirs are the opportunities of en- gradually being set for a determined group to forcing beneficially the modest, nonrevolu- make political capital by organizing the village tionary programs which have always been the poor and pressing their demands outside an core of the Indian agrarian reform movement. 53. A Note on Agricultural Reforms The interesting aspects of this August 1.970 paper, despite a certain redundancy of earlier ones, lie in its background and apparent motivations. Within a short time after Robert McNamara's advent as president, significant changes in insight and objectives had come to the World Bank. In his address to a Columbia University Conference on International Economic Development in February 1970, McNamara had stated that "However important an increase in GNP may be as a necessary condition of development, it is not a sufficient condition." Limiting attention to an expanding GNP and overlooking "the other economic, social, and moral dimensions of the modernizing process . . . can only lead to greater political, social, and economic disequilibrium . . . If our investments are to meet this wider goal . . . we and other investors need to add . . . a new dimension of social concern." Statements like these, and the new directions in Bank policy and activities to which they pointed, were a welcome sign to Ladejinsky that he was no longer swimming against the stream. At the same time they probably suggested to him that the Bank's staff might well benefit from a timely summary note that recapitulated what agrarian reform in India was all about and what a reasonable "minimum program" would be. But he also added a caution against undue expectations of how influential a role the Bank might attempt to play in such an outcome. The basic story, by now familiar, need not be repeated; only Ladejinsky's concluding summary is presented. * * * time off. One comes back, therefore, to the WHATEVER THE FUTURE MAY BRING, it is principal point made in this paper, that the generally agreed that India is confronted in state governments must turn a new leaf in the countryside with a situation in which desir- dealing with agrarian reforms. That new leaf able agrarian reforms cannot be brought about is direct action and the mobilization of forces either by persuasion or legislation. Twenty and resources of a kind with which wars are years of blowing mostly cold provide sufficient fought. At this juncture this is seemingly the evidence on both scores. Political organization only road to progress until the day when the among the have-nots and the exercise of their peasantry becomes a source of authority and a voting power can be crucial. But this is a long mainspring of change. But in whatever way it Field Trip to Eastern Uttar Pradesh 475 comes, come it must simply because rural India is "No!" Precedence alone argues for this posi- cannot prosper in a state of turmoil. The Green tiOn. FAO, the Ford Foundation, and experts Revolution, yes, for it carries the promise of an singly and in groups, domestic and foreign, eventual sufficiency of food for the people of have tried their hand directly or indirectly and India. No one can minimize this achievement with no success. Researching Indian reform when it finally comes to pass, as it is likely to; problems in depth is not now a useful pre- but it should be noted that it can come through occupation. It has all been done over and over the efforts of something considerably less than again, and it only went to prove that experts the majority of the cultivators. In this connec- and solicitous advice don't make reforms. For tion, the warning of Mr. Chavan, the former the same reason we firmly believe that, with home minister, that unless the land reforms are all due recognition of the Bank's standing in speedily implemented the Green Revolution India, the same would happen if the govern- might turn into a red one goes beyond rhetoric. ment of India accepted and the Bank launched Rising productivity, which is the hallmark of a "reform project" :o restate what the situation the Green Revolution, doesn't necessarily stand is and what might be done to alleviate 'it. The for the alleviation of the plight of the under- reluctance to involve the Bank stems from this privileged ruralists. The negative aspects of the overriding consideration: If any issue of de- Green Revolution, due to the special Indian velopment and social change is beholden to setting in which it operates, could be mitigated politics, agrarian reform in India is surely that. by implementing the minimum reform pro- As such, it is an area where angels fear to gram. If done, agricultural production would tread, and this should apply to the Bank as well. receive an added impetus, but not the least It appears, therefore, that, while it is indeed would be the fusing of a measure of social fitting for the Bank to be informed about an justice with economic necessity. And after all issue which is tied in with the future of the is said and done, this is the real goal of an country's stability and development, anything agrarian reform. And this is the goal India is that goes beyond that will yield no useful re- yet to achieve. stilts. In the final analysis-and without at- tempting to discover new Americas-it is for Has the Bank a role to play? the Indians to setle this purely Indian issue, which spells nothing less than passionate ad- Unsolicited, one is tempted to raise this ques- herence to property rights on the one hand tion: Is there anything the World Bank could and an attack on :he same on the other hand. do by study or exhortation to help advance the In this kind of a struggle the better part of cause of agrarian reform in India? The answer wisdom is for the Bank to stay out of it. 54. Field TriP to Eastern Uttar Pradesh In late April 1971 Ladejinsky visited eastern Uttar Pradesh. His report, dated May 6, sheds much light on problems of water, mechanization, the consolidation of fragmented holdings, tenancy, and so on in an area recently touched by the new agricultural technology. I VISITED EASTERN UTTAR PRADESH in late Pradesh as a whole. Industrial development- April to acquaint myself with a reputedly large or small scale-is virtually nonexistent; backward, poor, overpopulated, and caste- except for a few sugar mills and brick kilns, ridden part of the state. The population is 93 industrial activity is largely confined to tradi- percent rural as against 87 percent for Uttar tional cottage and household units. Ten years 476 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 ago ( more recent data are not available) the Wherever we went, the principal item per capita income of the state was Rs261 which concerned all farmers was shortage of (national average Rs330), while that of eastern water. All other serious problems were clearly Uttar Pradesh was Rsl72. Severe shortage of of secondary priority to the bigger and smaller irrigation facilities, recurring floods, small hold- farmers, and the same applies to the landless ings, and farm practices which inevitably agricultural laborers from the point of view of meant low productivity largely accounted for the duration of employment. It is a cliche to this state of affairs. In the past five or six years say that the reliance on the monsoon is risky; the agricultural economy has been undergoing but, when talking in the field to two small promising changes; agricultural production and farmers jointly renting three-fourths of arn productivity have been rising and the condi- acre under cane, the water issue assumes grave tions of some farm groups show signs of im- proportions. Since they had only an inadequate provement. On the whole, though, the region masonry well, the monsoon would have to be is only beginning to find its way out of what bountiful for them to earn a gross Rs175 was (and still is) essentially a subsistence rural apiece. This is not an extreme case, extending economy. as it does to better-off farmers who so far de- In the course of a six-day jeep tour one col- pend primarily on the annual vagaries of the lects not only aching bones but also certain monsoon. impressions about current farming conditions We are not in a position to deal even in and the thinking of the farm community. The rough terms with the main ramifications of the paragraphs that follow are indeed impressions water problem of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It only, but after visits to a dozen villages and would take much time, effort, and specialized talks with numerous farmers in the field they knowledge to do that. But something can be are worth recording. In summary they are as said that points to the magnitude of what follows: (a) Regardless of the size of hold- bothers the farmer community. The following ings, lack of water is uppermost in the minds is one indication that bears on the above: of the farmners. While they are Supposedly Mobilization of all the available resources sitting on a large reservoir of underground . .i. for irrigation to the maximum extent and water and despite the sharp increase in the f i tt a as expeditiously as possible is the kingpin number of tube wells, the water, for the greater a . still is underground. (b) The Green in the strategy of accelerated development in pRvt i this region. The Team has come to the con- Revoutin i wel kown n esten Urar clusion that by 1971 effective irrigation will Pradesh and farm practices are gradually chang- hav t b extendet 7prcentiof the ing, but of mechanized agriculture there is lve ae in. t 7 percent in virtually none. (c) The larger owners fear a C further reduction of the land ceiling and are Jaunpur, 75 percent in Ghaziput and 80 taking measures to meet that threat by another percent in Deoria.' round of land transfers to near and far rela- It should be added that the same team placed tions. (d) Tenancy is on the decline but not the principal reliance on private minor irri- because tenants are being converted into owner gation works, with strong emphasis on tube proprietors. (e) Land consolidation is taking wells, whether diesel or electric. The six reasons place on a fairly large scale, but apart from its given by the team to stress this preference as beneficial aspect it has one serious negative against major types of irrigation are well known aspect, which is the displacement of tenants as and need not be repeated here. part of the process. (f) The recent abolition Much has been achieved. The tube wells are of land revenue on 6 acres and less is not not dotting the landscape ii ]a Punjab; spotting favored by the farmers, big or small. (g) one from a moving vehicle is not easy, and Finally, the English-speaking harijan (untouch- able) farmer spoke for many harijans, small cultivators, and landless when he concluded his 1. "Report of Joint Study Team," (Uttar Pradesh tale of woe in these words; "Sir, I am very (Eastern Districts], January 1964), p. 76, paragraph poor." 4. Field Trip to Eastern Uttar Pradesh 477 some of the villages we stopped in had none. are obvious; but as we shall point out elsewhere Nevertheless, this is a case where the eye can this condition has induced a good deal of mislead the casual observer, for the figures tell consolidation effort, and this is one of the a different story. In the district of Jaunpur be- brighter developments observed. tween 1965-66 and 1969-70, the total number Tenancy is on the decline but for rather of tube wells increased from 509 to 5,595, in special reasons. For all practical purposes the Varanasi from 546 to 7,011, in Ghazipur from agrarian reform laws do not apply in eastern 237 to 4,076, in Azamgarh from 424 to 7,463, Uttar Pradesh, and a case can be easily made and in Deoria from 2,283 to 9,205. Electric that they have worsened the position of the connections are a problem because of a power tenantry through the familiar "voluntary" sur- shortage, and in the first four districts roughly renders, outright ejectment, high rentals, and half the tube wells are electrified and in the total disregard of the ceiling provisions. last one only 25 percent of the total. The Though the ceilings are not enforced, the larger progress is unmistakable, but water deficiency owners are disturbed by the reports of lower- is there just the same, and if the situation is to ing them. As a precautionary measure, a new be materially improved their numbers must round of land transfers is taking place in an- increase manifold. If it is assumed that a tube ticipation of such legislation. According to two well irrigates 10 acres and if this capacity is "tasildars," in their "tasils" (district subdivi- related to the sown acreage of the above- sions) hundreds of owners have already legal- mentioned districts in the order given, the tube ized such transfe:s in the guise of sales. How wells provide water for only 9, 8, 7, 7, and 8 widespread this movement is in other parts of percent of their respective acreages. Other irri- the country remains to be seen; but, if eastern gation facilities take up some of the slack, but Uttar Pradesh is any indication of what is in it may be concluded that, while most farmers store, lowered ceilings will not result in any of the region suffer from a land shortage, there significant acreage slated for redistribution. is apparently more land than water. The state Tenancy conditions, in what remains of tube wells are a story in themselves but by all tenancy, are what might be expected and occa- accounts not a success story, and farmers want sionally a bit worse. Rents are rising, which is tube wells. not surprising in conditions of land hunger The villages are small, but not so much in and increased productivity. On better irrigated terms of farm families as in acreage. A village land the fifty-fifty sharing formula is in effect possessing anything above 600 to 700 acres is a net of 25 percent of the crop to the tenant exceptional; but, of what land there is, dis- because the cost of the inputs are often de- tribution is, as usual, highly skewed. Taking ducted from the tenants' share. Higher rental the eastern region as a whole, owned holdings is not the worst the tenant faces. Under the of less than one acre accounted (1961 census) impact of the new and more profitable farm for 22 percent of the total; 38 percent are in practices, the trend is away from tenancy and the category between I and less than 3 acres; towards self-cultivation pzimarily with perma- 18 percent between 3 and less than 5 acres; nent or "attached" labor and casual laborers and 22 percent owned 5 acres or more. What during the peak seasons. In both instances, the figures don't reveal is that a relatively small little cash changes hands. In the first instance group of farmers with 10 to 30 acres own most the owner turns over half an acre to two acres of the land and the rest are "mini" farmers, an of land to the attached laborer in exchange for undetermined number with so little land that carrying out whatever chores he is assigned in for all practical purposes they can be classified the course of the year. The land reverts to the with the landless. Holdings are badly frag- owner when the arrangement lapses. An ac- mented. About the village of Sakaldia (Vara- ceptance of a loan may lead to the same condi- nasi district) our notebook reads as follows: a tion, the loan--not the land-being the con- holding of 40 acres in 15 to 20 plots, 14 acres sideration. The attached laborer receives all of in 10 plots, 4 acres in 7 plots, while the biggest his food while on the owner's farm. Where holder with 45 acres testified to 60 to 61 plots. casual or daily laborers are involved, the usual Its depressing effects on agricultural production practice is to provide breakfast and a kilogram 478 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 or two of whatever the main product of the cipal gap filled in for us privately was that the season happens to be, the amount depending chairman was both the main consumer and on whether he works half a day or a full day. source of credit, relending it at 30 percent or In the harvesting season the remuneration more. The strong impression carried away is ranges from one-sixteenth to as low as one- the apathy of the farmers about credit societies thirtieth part of the crop. Wages have moved as if they had no real function to perform. The up in eastern Uttar Pradesh as elsewhere, but reasons are too well known to call for elabora- if converted to cash they do not exceed Rs2 a tion. At least one farmer dismissed the entire day. The food thus earned during four to six cooperative movement by saying that "the em- months of the year doesn't suffer for more than bezzlers are in charge of the coops." This is 3 to 4 months. In most instances, significant not a new charge, even if not always phrased improvement in wheat and rice yields has not in such terms; but evidently the vested interests yet created new alternatives for farm laborers. in this particular eastern Uttar Pradesh village They continue to be faced with the problem behaved just as the rest of them in multitudes of large supplies of surplus laborers. Two prac- of ill-performing credit cooperative societies in tices help to supplement such meager incomes: other parts of the country. The branch of a remittances from members of the families (not nationalized bank six miles away did not come only of the poorest) who have migrated to in for much praise either, the main point being other states in search of employment, or em- that it concerned itself only with loans to rich ployment in nearby brick kilns or elsewhere in farmers. Uttar Pradesh itself. A case in point was the In conditions sketched above one wouldn't rickshaw driver who in the nick of time saved expect the Green Revolution to be a factor of the day for us when our jeep ran out of gaso- any significance. And yet, many farmers actually line. He proved to be an owner of an acre and practice it by using fertilizer and improved a half of land plying this trade to augment his seed varieties. In a region where none was income. The poverty of the underprivileged is used only a few short years ago, it is remark- self-evident, but it is mitigated where the sons able how widely this use has proliferated and or heads of the families have pulled up stakes the line the farmers draw between the relative and found employment outside of the villages. utility of one type of fertilizer compared with That all or most farmers need credit is axio- another. For a variety of reasons the volume matic, but it is equally true that the credit used varies greatly, but a farmer's self- cooperatives in Uttar Pradesh are among the answering question-"How can you raise a country's worst performers. This is surely true good crop without them?"-tells a good deal of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Had we visited many about the changing practices. Very significant times twelve villages, the conclusion would be is the volume used, given water availability. In the same. They are either defunct altogether, this regard, two facts emerge from a sample lead a hand-to-mouth existence, and even the study dealing with four categories of farmers, one good society we ran into-Rs80,000 ad- ranging from an average of 16, 7, 4, and 2 vanced and only Rs8,000 overdue-did not acres. The first is that a number of them use prove to be as painted for the benefit of the the prescribed dosage (nitrogen-phosphorous- visitors. Only a third of the farm families were potassium 36:18:18 kilograms per acre on members and fewer still received loans. About wheat or rice); some few use more, and even 90 percent of the advances were in cash with the two-acre farmers deviate but little from no concern for how the credit was used, and the prescribed mix. The second item is worth curiously enough the farmer owners are charged noting, even if not a new one, is that the size a 9 percent interest rate as against 12 percent of holding is at least neutral from the point of paid by the landless. Presumably the degree of view of yields attained. Thus, the farmers in creditworthiness had something to do with the the category averaging 2 acres produced 40 different rate. The chairman of the cooperative maunds of wheat and 37 maunds of paddy per society and his co-leader, obviously the "all-in- acre, compared with 44 and 49 in the farmer all" of the village, were extolling its progress, category averaging 16 acres. Considering that but there were gaps in the account. The prin- the latter applied much more fertilizer per acre, Field Trip to Eastern Uttar Pradesh 479 the small farmers hold their own rather well in to mechanization. The owner innovator saw no proportionately similar resource conditions. point in using more labor-saving devices in They evidently try harder. order to operate an already very profitable farm Apart from this sample taken in some of the with four well-fed pairs of bullocks. They pro- tillages we visited, the average wheat yields on vide him with compost which he successfully irrigated land is 30 maunds per acre; this com- mixes with chemical fertilizers, and he is in a pares well with the former 15 to 16 (without position to maintain a proper time schedule fertilizer and better seed), not to speak of the for his field operations. This is not to say that 8 to 10 maunds per acre on dry land farming. some farmers have no tractors or haven't ap- %pproximately the same holds for paddy. The plied for them, but the tractor is not yet part cropping pattern too shows some signs of of the changes taking place. Almost the same change, and the introduction of potatoes as a goes for the power tiller. A very unhappy cash crop has been very profitable and is ex- farmer sold his bullocks, borrowed some money, panding. This region is not Punjab or western and bought one of domestic make for Rs8,000. Uttar Pradesh, and it would be idle to draw And that was a big mistake. To listen to him, comparisons between them. But this much everything went wrong with it and the replace- should be noted: Many farmers with little ment wasn't any better. This useless symbol technical assistance from outside know how to of mechanization will give way to bullocks once mix or stretch their limited resources gain- again; and the immediate prospects are that, fully. within a considerable radius of this particular The net effect of the contact with the Green fiasco, no farmer will venture to buy one. Revolution has certainly benefited the larger Threshers are just beginning to make their ap- landholders and, to a degree, the smaller holders pearance; but the prevailing sight, this being as well who are in a position to buy fertilizer, the threshing season, are bullocks making their improved seed varieties, and make the best use endless rounds on rhe threshing floor. The rich of what water they do have. The farmer with farmer with the RsIO0,000 "pucca" house has 40 irrigated acres who has just built himself a not been touched by the mechanical phase of RsIO0,000 "pucca" house is the great exception, the new technology; his participation is limited but a few have gone from thatch to tile roofs to the sharing o:' a thresher with another and a few from tile roofs to new and better farmer. The change is mainly in the improve- houses. It is fair to say that the front-seaters in ment of the plow-from the customary one any peasant meeting have not done badly in with a thin iron spike to an all-iron plow. The eastern Uttar Pradesh, and some of the less shift is anything but universal; one village did well-placed farmers are not without gains boast of ten such plows, and the best one can either. The picture of improved conditions say that it is the beginning of a trend. must not be overdrawn; all the inhibiting Pressed as to why the bigger farmers have factors mentioned earlier continue to affect ad- not gone much beyond the iron plow stage, the versely the very small cultivators, tenants, and answers are about as follows: cheap and abun- iandless. dant labor; fragmentation of the land; initial A feature no can can miss, however brief heavy outlay; absence of repair facilities in the visit, is the apparent absence of mechanical neighboring town:;, and, as always, uncertainty equipment normally associated with the new about the water supply. Any one of the reasons technology. One is tempted to say, for instance, or a combination of them may explain the that there is not a tractor in the region. This reluctance to mechanize the farms of 20 or is not true, of course, or else why would there more acres. Our craveling companion, Srinath be an agency selling tractors in the city of Singh, a native of the area with much knowl- Benares? We are merely saying that a tractor edge of its rural economy, adds another reason: is a great rarity; there was only one in the vil- arrested entrepreneurship. An irrigation facility lages we contacted. The visit to a reputedly is a must; a mode:;t investment in fertilizer and most progressive farmer of eastern Uttar Pra- in high-yielding varieties doesn't involve much desh revealed that on his block of 45 acres of risk-taking, whereas mechanical equipment de- choice land only the thresher was a concession mands a considerable investment and an array 480 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 of changes for which they are not yet prepared that, with the new incentives provided by ferti- or which they don't consider vital. The conclu- lizer and better seed, there will be a greater sion he draws is that for some time traditional urge to dig tube wells. The tube well develop- agriculture in eastern Uttar Pradesh will con- ment in the past five years is an encouraging tinue but with strong admixtures of the Green sign of the prospects that lie ahead. And yet Revolution in the form of tube wells, fertilizer, the consolidation process is not without its fly and seed. What may tilt this relationship in in the ointment as far as the tenants are con- favor of mechanization is the consolidation of cerned. Testimony on this score from various holdings currently very much in evidence. sources is clear-consolidation is an occasion Previously we cited a sample of the extreme to eliminate tenancies. The process begins, Ao degree of land subdivision or fragmentation. least with some owners, once a village has been It is an old story not peculiar to eastern Uttar earmarked for consolidation. While it is true Pradesh; but the administrators of the region that, even before consolidation the tenants had are combating it by the time-consuming, costly no firmly assigned plots beyond a crop season effort to consolidate the fragments into more or could be displaced on the ground of "self- viable blocks of land. Five years ago the total cultivation," the reshuffling of the plots and the land consolidated in the region was an esti- presumed rise in the value of the entire holding mated 700,000 acres, and by 1976 another 2 offers the owner an added incentive to be rid million acres are to be treated similarly. The of his tenants. In this regard consolidation and answer to the question of how much has been its economic consequences are not dissimilar achieved to date is that the job will be com- from those of the Green Revolution in general pleted in another 4 to 5 years. Looking at indi- with its enhanced land prices, rents, and ulti- vidual village cases, the maps with neatly drawn mate ejectment from the land in many cases. enlarged holdings, the wrangle among the The consolidators are alive to this by-product, farmers about exchanging plots-and this is but they can only point to the agrarian reforms the core of consolidation-one is left with the which failed to achieve their goals and which impression that the anticipated completion of are not within their competence anyway. the job is on the optimistic side. The court Effective May 1, 1971, all holdings in Uttar cases challenging the decisions of the consoli- Pradesh of 6.25 acres and less are relieved of dators are enough to give one pause. Neverthe- paying land revenue. It is an outgrowth of a less, the results we looked at or those about to promise made by a variety of political parties take place are or will be an improvement over on the eve of the election to woo the farm vote. the former totally uncontrolled scatteration of Now that this is one promise kept, how do plots. The majority of the farmers will not the farmers feel about it? The consensus seems have all their land in one piece, but the ex- to be that they don't favor it for a number of pectation is that a goodly number will and that reasons. The last revenue settlement in eastern the plots of many others will be reduced in Uttar Pradesh took place in 1882 and the per number. A farmer with 11 acres and 64 frag- ments now reduced to three plots may not be acre.renue varies fo rs2uto r oc typial,but n atemp toelimnat exteme sidering the changes in agricultural produc- typical, but an attempt to eliminate extreme tvt,priual nmr eetyas o h subdivision is under way. It is understood also tivity, particularly in more recent years, for the that the best consolidation effects are good individual farmer the amount involved is too only for a generation. The reference is to the small to be considered a boon. Since the reve- inheritance laws, especially in cases where the nue is levied on owners, there is no reason for joint family tradition of cultivating the land them to worry that their title to the land will- as a unit breaks down. In such event, the be in any way jeopardized without the revenue process of parcellation enters the picture once receipts. But they are concerned and would feel again. more at ease by paying the land revenue. Its Whatever the future, more immediately abolition in these categories has not been ac- consolidation in relation to agricultural produc- companied by an upward revision of revenue tivity should mean greater scope for tube well for farmers above that acreage. The decline of development. Officials and farmers are agreed land revenue for the state as a whole is esti- Agriculture-Problems and Needs 481 mated from Rs21 crores to 9 crores; in a dis- well project. Whether the bigger farms are trict with which we are familiar, the respective mechanized or not is not an issue; quite a few figures are Rs45 lakhs and 13 lakhs. The of them are doing well without the benefit of farmers believe that the government of Uttar the tractor, power tiller, or even a thresher. 'Pradesh will try to make up this loss through But for the entire laidowning farm community, other imposts, ultimately nullifying their small including the agricultural laborers in search of net gain. Finally and more importantly, the employment of longer duration, a rise in pro- argument against abolition is that, if the gov- ductivity is of prime importance; and the main ernment is in earnest about the lot of farmers, stumbling block is the shortage of water. If it 'why no greater assistance in furthering irriga- is true that eastern Uttar Pradesh sits atop a tion facilities, more electric power, more large supply of still untapped underground schools, more effective credit facilities to the water, further tube well possibilities cannot be very farm groups relieved of paying land reve- excluded. Whether, despite the consolidation nue, more and better village approaches from efforts, land fragmentation and the small-sized the highway, cheaper water rates, lower ferti- holdings are an insuperable obstacle should be lizer prices, and so forth? When all these rea- examined in line with this overall suggestion. sons are put together, it is not surprising why The encouraging fa.ct is that in the peculiarly the politics of land revenue abolition don't sit difficult conditions of the region, 32,000 tube well with the beneficiaries, wells have been installed in the past five years. As far as the writer of these observations is We presume that sound economic reasons gen- concerned and in relation to the World Bank, erated this development. It may well be, there- one recommendation emerges from all of the fore, that a Bank mission would find conditions above: an examination of the water problem suitable for a tube well project as such or as of eastern Uttar Pradesh with an eye to a tube part of a broader agricultural credit project. 55. Agriculture-Problems and Needs This was Ladejinsky's contribution to the World Bank's annual report, "Economic Situation and Prospects of India," May 11, 1971. The problems discussed are for the most part familiar, but they are examined in a changing, increasingly emotion-laden scene. The Green Revolution has moved forward, but so have its side effects. Mechanization has become a cause for concern and debate; a rural works crash employment program is in preparation; the Small Farmers Development Agency has got its program star:ed; in the absence of - progress on agrarian reform, the Communist and other leftist parties joined to organize a national "land grab," which was tried and failed. All these and more enter into Ladejinsky's analytic review. He includes a powerful quotation from Jayaprakash Narayan on the state of social injustice in the Indian countryside and offers some telling observations on appropriate goals for external assistance. "Foreign lenders," he argues, "should seek out projects which combine reasonable production potentials with a concern for social justice." To reduce redundancies between this 1971 annual report and those for 1970, 1972, and 1973, only the section on land reform is included here; in it Ladejinsky clearly formulates his famous "minimum" program. THIS OLD AND VEXING PROBLEM [of land re- on India. The past year has not been notable form] is familiar to readers of previous reports for steps towards resolving such issues as ceil- 482 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 ings on land ownership (except for a few new First and foremost is the preparation of a legislative enactments with results yet un- record of tenancies without which no tenant's known), security of tenure, and fair rentals or claim could be legally established and no ten- recorded rights of tenants and sharecroppers ant can obtain security of tenure. The impor- to remain on the land undisturbed. In 1970 tance of this for the securing of credit has been- the union government made yet another at- underscored above. Written lease argeements tempt to induce the state chief ministers to instead of oral ones and receipts for rents move the unfinished reform business off dead should be made mandatory. Crop share rents center, but with far from satisfactory results. are extremely difficult to regulate and should The year 1970 will be remembered in In- be replaced by cash rents; to facilitate this, dian agrarian history as the year of the land either the rents should be fixed as a multiple -grab. Though the result was a fiasco, it high- of the land revenue or else the state govern- lighted the fact that the land reform issue is not ments should divide land in each area into a about to fade away. The tide of unrest is bound few broad categories and determine the aver- to rise, and even the politicians normally op- age produce of each such category of land and posed to reforms may yet be compelled under the average price at which it may be converted the threat of circumstances beyond their con- into cash; as a rule of thumb, no rental should trol to grant what they have long denied to exceed a third of the crop, particularly where the underprivileged under due process of law. the tenant is responsible for all the inputs. This may not lead to any significant redistribu- The essential purpose of tenancy reform is tion of land, but it could result in a fairer to give security of tenure and to regulate the distribution of agricultural income through a rent tenants pay. One without the other makes number of measures which constitute a feasible no sense, and the two measures must go hand "minimum program." in hand. The Indian land-man ratio being what In our past reports the following issues have it is, no land at a rental below 50 percent or been examined at considerable length: the need more of the crop can be secured without the for reforms, the efforts to that end spanning force of law behind it. The tenant will not be two decades or more, the important achieve- able to protect himself without the assurance ment in the abolition of intermediary (aamin- that, barring misuse of the land or nonpayment dari) tenures, the far from successful tenancy of rent, he can remain on the land undisturbed reform measures affecting cultivators on about and with a right of renewal of the lease. This 20 percent of the cultivated land of the coun- is the basic part of "security of tenure" and is try, the peculiarly difficult Indian rural setting crucial to the entire scheme of land reform which partly explains the character the reforms legislation. To make this effective, the most have assumed, and finally the insistence of the debilitating part of the land reform in India, government of India-as distinct from the the ill-defined right of an owner to "resume" state governments-that the errors of commis- or take back the tenant's holding for "personal sion and omission of the reform legislation and cultivation," should be abolished or permitted- of its poor implementation must be corrected. only in exceptional cases defined by law. In' We will not go over this familiar ground, but practice hardly any tenants voluntarily sur- four items may usefully be discussed: (a) a render land; they do so only under the threat minimum reform program, (b) the land ceil- of total separation from the land, even as an ing and the conference of the state chief agricultural laborer. Such surrenders, if they ministers, (c) the land grab movement, and are not fictitious, should be so regulated that (d) implementation prerequisites and pros- other tenants are settled on the land; in all other pects. instances, which is the majority of them, they Granting that reforms in India may yet see should not be permitted except when the land better days, what should be the character of a is required for some specific nonagricultural miniunm program to which the states of India purpose. Most of the surrenders are past his- should address themselves? Experience here tory, and restoring the tenantry to their formerly and elsewhere suggests an action program as cultivated land is about as difficult as undoing outlined in the following paragraphs. the ceiling provisions mischief discussed below. Agriculture-Problems and Needs 483 Nevertheless, no program of this kind can over- tain that their own divided holdings were each look it when a demonstrated wrong has been under the ceiling. In the light of the overall done or agreement breached. Access to water performance, the third five-year plan concluded where available should also be part of any re- with moderation that "On the whole, it would vised tenancy legislation, especially as a means be correct to say th.at in recent years the trans- of utilizing the new farm practices. fers of land (to relatives) have tended to de- If such measures are enacted and enforced, feat the aims of the legislation on ceilings and the familiar discrimination by the credit co- to reduce its impact on the rural economy." operatives against the tenants would undergo The drafters of the legislation could have an- a drastic change. It is important that tenants ticipated this result when they elected to permit be given a sense of participation in the imple- the application of a retention limit not to the mentation of a land reform program. With family as a unit but to individuals comprising that in mind, and as in Japan and Taiwan, it, while at the same time handing out ex- village reform committees should be created emptions right and left. with a suitable representation of tenants, owner This brief account of past history is relevant lessors, and owner cultivators. What the offi- to yet another land reform conference of the cials do not know about "who is who" in the state chief ministers (September 26-27, 1970) village the committee would surely know. Even sponsored by the prime minister. Coming as it a literate tenant would lose his way in the maze did not long after the nationwide land grab of the provisions of the enacted legislation and movement and the recognition that a similar amendments piled upon amendments; this ex- conference in November 1969 was anything plains why most of them have only a hazy but a success story, something more tangible notion of what the reform laws mean or do not was expected this time. The immediate out- mean. The owners have no such problem. We come belied these expectations, but not for suggest, therefore, that the basic provisions of lack of exhortation on the part of the prime the laws pertaining to landlord-tenant rela- minister. With an allusion to land grabs, Mrs. tions be reduced to a sheet of paper and, like Gandhi noted that "political parties may orga- the Magna Carta, be nailed to the door of every nize, even exploit, rural discontent but they do village office. Many a tenant would find out not create it. The time has come to face the what the law is about, and under propitious facts." She pointedly asked the chief ministers: circumstances he might put the knowledge to Why is social discontent in the countryside on good use. the increase? Why is it erupting in violence Perhaps the most difficult part of any reform with greater frequency? In her answer which effort is a ceiling on land ownership to provide should have set the tone for the coming de- a pool of surplus land for the establishment of liberations, she stated: owner proprietors. Virtually every state reform The land reform measures implemented enactment contains a limitation (ceiling) on have failed to match the legitimate expecta- the permissible retention, but it is equally true ions which toere first fostered among m- that the intent of the ceilings has been widely tions whichlweretfrs fost e aon l evaded. The ceilings have generated an esti- lions of cultivators during the national mated 2.4 million acres of surplus land of which movement . . . In short, we have yet to 1.6 million acres have been taken over by the create institui:ional conditions which would 1.6 illon cre hae ben tkenove bythe enable small farmers, tenants, and landless state governments, but only approximately 1.2 eabl ers , te anlales million acres have been distributed. The numer- l ous exemptions (twenty-six kinds in Tamil Deal. Nadu) 1 and the division of the land among It would be pleasant to report that these senti- members of the owners' families and close and ments were shared by the assembly. Reducing distant relatives have combined to make cer- the ceiling limit was the main point of discus- sion, imparting to it an importance far beyond its deserts; but most of the chief ministers re- 1. V. G. Prasad Rao, "Land Ceiling in Tamil jected such a proposal outright. This preoccu- Nadu," Times of India (October 8, 1970). pation with the most intractable issue of all 484 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 diverted attention from practically all other ceilings at the present time. For one thing, the aspects of land reform which economically and new land recipients are likely to get the worst politically truly matter at this juncture. What land. The state governments would have to concerned the chief ministers were higher finance the conversion of such land into more prices for agricultural products, more credit, productive units. This is unlikely to come and more of other inputs to raise production. about; but, if it does not, such holdings would They were making their stand on the basic eventually go back where they came from. In assumptions underlying the new agricultural view of state government finances, the obliga- policy, one of them being no disturbance in tion of paying for the land, which the states land relations. The upshot was the classic would have to undertake in the first instance, shelving device: The Central Land Reforms would have to be at the expense of other de- Committee was to "examine in depth the diffi- velopment expenditure unless it were financed, culties" brought out during the conference. as it well could be, by taxing agricultural in- Nevertheless, a number of states have since come. But not the least of the problems is the enacted new and more meaningful legislation enforcement of such ceiling measures. The by lowering the retention limit and by tying past record cannot be disregarded by even the it to the family holding as a whole. These states staunchest supporters of land redistribution in are Kerala (Communist), Tamil Nadu (no- India. It is very doubtful that what has been torious for the plight of its tenantry and land- so thoroughly scrambled up with impunity can less laborers), and West Bengal (under presi- be unscrambled, especially at a time when the dent's rule and overflowing with rural strife). role played by the bigger owners in the new If actually implemented, a fairly large number technology is deemed important. Finally, it of cultivators would get some land but not would be highly presumptuous to assume that enough to create anything resembling viable all or even most of the land claimants would holdings. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu "all rural indeed share in some land or, as a corollary of households will have some land to cultivate that, that lowered ceilings would do much to but . . . between 40 and 45 percent will have contain rural unrest. This said, the accumula- just half an acre each.'2 If similarly reduced tion of excessively large holdings in a few parts ceilings were applied nationwide, approxi- of India is a threat to the social order and mately the same proportion of cultivators in the should be tackled on a selective basis by the various states would have holdings ranging states concerned. from 0.5 acres to 2.5 acres, the only exception In retrospect, 1970 will not be remembered being Rajasthan with 5 acres and much of it for the ceiling controversy but for the nation- poor land. Though this exercise was not pre- wide so-called land grab movement or, as its cise, Dandekar and Rath conclude that there initiators prefer to call it, the "de-grabbing" is not enough land to raise the existing smaller movement. Measured in land seized and dis- holdings above these levels and that to provide tributed, the entire affair can be dismissed as land for the landless would vastly increase the a failure, even if the claim of having occupied number of uneconomic nonviable holdings. and distributed 30,000 acres is correct; but as The validity of this argument is recognized, a reflection of the forces of unrest, it demon- but in a country with great land hunger the strated that a better prepared moveinent in line of demarcation between a viable and non- future could lead to drastically different re- viable holding is not as important as it appears sults. The phenomenon of land grabbing is not at first glance. Even half an acre, let alone an new in Indian history. Unlike the modern land acre or two of reasonably good land, spells the grabbers, those of a bygone age went about difference between abject poverty and some- their business by taking the land rather than thing approaching security. Nevertheless, we indulging in agitations, flag waving, and sym- are not suggesting major emphasis on new bolic land occupations. But one doesn't need to invoke history to note that the movement discussed here can be carried out successfully 2. Dandekar and Rath, Poverty in India (Ford in modern times; all one has to do is look two Foundation, December 19, 1970), p. 102. or three years back at West Bengal, where un- Agriculture-Problems and Needs 485 der the United Front (Communist) regime Judging by the proclaimed intent of the 100,000 acres or more were forcibly seized and grabbers" or "liberators" of land, they were distributed, though at the price of considerable setting out to undo all the injustices which loss of life on both sides. Kerala's pre-1970 have cropped up in the wake of the land re- land grab experience is a peculiarly Keralan form programs. In reality, the scope of the story, but it also points to the fact that the activities was limited and more symbolic than rural poor can be persuaded to take the law real. The brunt cf the attack was on certain into their own hands and can get away with prominent individuals in agriculture, business, it." Nor is the idea a novel one that some day and public office with known large holdings the land question of modern India might be who circumvented the ceiling provisions. In settled in such manner. On this point, an ex- addition, it cente:ed on large holdings vested change between Gandhi and Louis Fisher, his in the state since the abolition of the zamin- biographer, is instructive. Asked Fisher: "What daries-which had been either distributed would happen in Free India?" Replied Gandhi: among the wrong people or not distributed "The peasants would take the land. We at all. Government wasteland, tribal lands, wouldn't have to tell them to take it. They Bhoodan lands (gifts by rich owners to the V. would take it."4 As with all good prophets, it Bhave movements but allegedly not distributed didn't happen in his lifetime; but the "takings" among the landless), homestead lands, and in recent years, however small, hark back to temple lands wer2 also included. Gandhi's prophecy. The movement created a great stir through- West Bengal has been very much in the out the country and was not without a good limelight for some years, with the rest of the deal of sympathy on the part of many of the country claiming only an occasional headline. onlookers. One cf its weaknesses lay precisely There was a particularly big one from Tamil in the fact that it could boast of more onlookers Nadu, where forty-two allegedly recalcitrant than participants. A fervent partisan of the landless were burned alive. Official sources re- movement bemoaned the readiness of the corded disturbances in the states of Assam, landed rich to protect their interests as against Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajas- the indifferent part played by the village poor than, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, includ- in support of their cause. "Even in the villages," ing a large number of forcible land occupations he writes, ". . . there is much misgiving re- in 1969. But a more concerted and militant garding the land struggle. The left parties have move was decided upon at the meeting of the not been able to allay these misgivings." This National Council of the cPI (Communist Party is part of the explanation of why the immediate of India) on May 15, 1970. Supported by the results were meaaer. two socialist parties and other left-wing organi- Other reason: are not far to seek. Though zations, a joint action committee was formed the leftist groups allied themselves to a cause to initiate the first phase of the "struggle-for- close to the hearts of the village poor, their land day" on July 1, followed by the second battalions were not there at the showdown to and third phases, all ending in late September. lend tangible support. They were conspicuous Three reasons explain this redoubled effort: by their absence partly because the Commu- the established precedent in the preceding nists and their allies jumped the gun too soon years, the need for a political "vote grab" de- and partly because their enthusiasm was evapo- vice to mobilize the peasantry under their re- rated, as in the case of Rajasthan, by a noti- spective party banners in the coming national fication of the government that landless people elections, and discontent with the slow pace of forcibly occupying government land (one of the land reforms. the main issues there) would be disqualified from future alotments. By far the most de- 3. T. K. Commen, "A Close Look at Land Grab- bilitating effeci: on the success of the land Allepey's Experience," Times of India (September 19, 1970). 4. Louis Fisher, A Week with Gandhi (Bombay: 5. Bauke Belari Das, "Lessons of Land Move- International Book House Ltd., 1944), p. 43. ment," Indian Left Review (February 1971), p. 19. 486 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 seizure move was the fact that practically all India's only option as a democratic welfare- state governments took it very seriously. It was minded state is to alleviate the conditions of a remarkable display of single-mindedness and those who have been promised and are entitled zeal about a land issue such as has never been to certain rights in the land they cultivate. demonstrated about the mass evasions and Therefore, the prime minister's repeated stress wholesale subversion of basically modest and that this is the only course for India to pursue useful reform measures. An estimated 20,000 can be disregarded only at the risk of the very political activists were placed under arrest; law interests anti-reformism is supposed to protect. and order were upheld; and the land grab The difficulties in the way are too well movement became only a memory-or so it known to need elaboration. Suffice it to say seemed. that no land reform is an amicable affair; It may be too soon for a final judgment on wherever reforms have succeeded, governments the episode. The three political parties domi- have had to use all the power within their com- nating the land grab have managed to establish mand to overcome the obstacles. India can be a degree of identity of purpose which may no exception to this rule, and strong pressures serve them better should there be a next time and clear-cut measures from the top will have around. Much more important, the movement to be applied to attain the desired goals. This has succeeded in focusing public attention on is the only road to progress until the day when the land hunger among the landless; more so the peasantry itself becomes a source of au- in fact than any official and unofficial declara- thority and a mainspring of change. The mini- tions could do. It pinpointed an inordinate mum reform program outlined in the preceding accumulation of land in a few private hands pages is not a revolutionary program; it re- contrary to the law and spirit of the reform quires only the legitimation of customary peas- enactments, and it brought into the open the ant rights and the removal of abuses which are entire question of public land vested in the in fact an outgrowth of legislation often ob- state governments and how poorly such land is structively drafted and cynically executed. being allocated to those in greatest need. To Rightly or wrongly, the land redistribution some close observers of the movement, its main question is muted, and the landowners and the achievement lies in the "waking up" of state politicians supporting them would be wise to governments and of the political parties which accept what impinges upon their economic heretofore took a very conservative view of interests least. If so, the instabilities and the landlord-tenant relations. The apparent signs tensions would be minimized, if not eliminated. of greater concern about fairer and speedier And so would the fear of an "explosion." Agri- allocation of public land to the landless and the cultural productivity would receive an added easement-often to the point of abatement- i w of eviction procedures against the illegal en- imetuswth a o le enon of croachment on land prior to the land grab could be treated as signs of the "waking up." ticipate among such reform-affected farmers One cannot predict whether this is a desir- the fusing of a measure of social justice with able portent of changes in the making. The economic improvement. After all is said and prime minister's sweeping election victory may done, this is the goal of an agrarian reform well prove to be far more important in this worthy of its name. And this is the goal India regard. We hazard this assumption because should pursue. Refugees in West Bengal 487 *56. Refugees in West Bengal Toward the end of August 1971, the number of refugees from East Pakistan who had fled to India had reached an estimated 8 million, almost all of them Hindus, and about 6 million of them in West Bengal. The World Bank's resident mission in New Delhi had gone to West Bengal to study the situation at firsthand and assess how this new responsibility so suddenly thrust upon India would affect its economy and needs for additional external assistance. Ladejinsky was a member of this party. In this letter of August 28 addressed to I. P. M. Cargill, then director of the South Asia department of the World Bank, Ladejinsky reported his personal observations and assessment of the situation. Among the plethora of reporting by the news and other communications media at the time, it is hard to recall anything approaching this in significant fact-finding, insight, and analysis. Ladejinsky's plea that the lack of precedent or other conventional reasons not be permitted to stand in the way of emergency assistance was not necessary. The India aid consortium had already met to consider the problem, and a sizable volume of emergency aid was quickly made available through the United Nations and supplemented by bilateral sources with the active support and assistance of the Bank. But Ladejinsky's reporting of the magnitude and urgency of the need and of the admirable and efficient handling of the problem by the Indian authorities was undoubtedly of considerable help to the Bank's management in formulating a constructive response to the emergency. I AM JUST BACK FROM CALCUTTA where Mac' refugees are. Just how many refugees there are and his entire staff were wetting their feet- is debatable, but the official estimate as of Au- literally so on two occasions-in connection gust 19 is just a touch over 8 million. If it is with the impact of the refugee problem on a million less, the problem is only marginally West Bengal and India in general. You will less bad. Approximately 6 million of the total get a detailed report on the subject; in the are in West Bengal, and of these an estimated meantime I am giving you my impressions, 1.5 million are ieportedly with relatives and ,some of which may not fit in the overall body friends. The bulk of the refugees are in 1,100 rof the report. What I have to say will be no camps, with 750 in West Bengal. The overall great news to you, but here it is for whatever figure is not one pulled out of a hat; it is based, it is worth. first of all, on the inoculation card which is a If seeing is believing, it takes but a fleeting must for every refugee who crosses the border, glance to recognize that the refugees are in one and this is followed by the even more impor- hell of a fix and ditto for West Bengal and tant ration card issued to every refugee. It is the Indian government. In saying this, I am this double-check. system that enables the com- not thinking so much of the present, which missioner for rehabilitation of West Bengal to is grim enough, but of the worse shape of cite from a little book the daily number of things to come in the not too distant future. arrivals and the total. The imperative of a But to begin with a few figures and who the ration card and shelter would seem to give the numbers a good deal of reliability. Under these circumstances, there cannot be much slippage 1. (Orville McDiarmid, then chief of the World at the border, and if the total is wrong it Bank's resident mission in New Delhi.] could also err or the low side. If 8 million is a 488 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 fairly correct figure, it is not the end of the foreseeable future-if ever-and it is this pros- story. The time when the daily influx ranged pect that bedevils the government of India. from 70,000 to 100,000 is over. In late July As to the motives of the escape, inclusive and early August the number had declined of refugees with properties left behind, they sharply to about 26,000, mainly because of ex- are known, do not need much laboring, and- tensive floods; but more recently the daily in- they are cited only as a part of the picture. The take had been averaging around 40,000. This, answers to the question why they left East of course, is the most disturbing part of the Pakistan are all the same: They did it in fear whole affair as it means no end of the inflow of their lives. This explanation is not given in immediately in sight, let alone a reverse flow. terms of unsubstantiated fears but rather in As the monsoon begins to draw to an end, it is the face of murder and pillage visited upon not unlikely that by the end of October or their relatives or friends. As we listened to a early November India will have to cope with number of cases, and admittedly a small sample, about 10 million refugees. Not without in- "guilt by association" has emerged as one mo- terest is the fact that the more recent arrivals tive for decamping. When an English-speaking originate more and more from the outlying Hindu publisher and book dealer had learned districts, 100 to 200 miles from the borders. that two of his politically involved friends (not The presumption is that the border districts Awami League activists) were shot during the have been largely cleaned out of the Hindu night, he had no choice but to flee for his life population, the morning after. The other motive is the Who the refugees are bears significantly on wholesale depredation of entire Hindu com- the issue at hand. I used to think that, since munities, or selective parts of such, and the the opposition to West Pakistan engulfed the belief that the same would befall them unless vast majority of the East Pakistanis, the exodus they cleared out. Finally, regardless of the im- would reflect it. This is not the case and it is mediate causes and the degree of embellish- demonstrated by the fact that the official esti- ment with which this or that account may be mates refer to only 7.5 percent Muslims and painted, I was reminded of an old Russian 92.5 percent Hindus. The figure could be closer saying that "no one runs away from a good to 5 percent-if that many. In the three camps life." A young farmer with 13 acres of land is we visited one has to look for a Muslim-and a case in point. As farmers go in East Pakistan, not find one-as was our experience. Certainly he was among the substantial ones and deeply in the Salt Lake camp, near Calcutta, with an attached to his property. Yet he, too, felt he estimated 150,000 "inmates," as our guide re- had no choice but to leave and, not without ferred to them, we didn't stumble on any interest, with the deed to his land safely group of Muslims. There may have been some, brought along. It is questionable if the proof and other camps surely have some; but the of ownership will serve its purpose; he feared inflow is essentially that of East Pakistan that his land had been already occupied by the Hindus. There is enough circumstantial evi- Muslims. just as questionable, though he did not allude to this, is his prospect of getting dence to say that the occupying powers of East back to his village. A mere glance at a group of Pakistan are "cooperating" in the exodus not refugees in their new surroundings and the only by making the lives of Hindus intolerable inevitable thought of what is in store for them but also by fomenting the forces of communal even under the best the government of India antagonism. But whether they are "cooperating" could provide are good enough explanations of or not, if 10 million refugees is to be the the strong pressure they were under to escape figure, which is approximately 80 percent of from an intolerable situation created by the the Hindu population of East Pakistan, one military occupation of East Bengal. must assume that the core of the West Pakistan Geographically, the refugees are dispersed policy is to turn East Pakistan into a Hindu- in eight states. However, West Bengal and free state or another version of a Juden rein Tripura claim a total of 7.4 million of which Nazi Germany. It is this that makes so im- 6.1 million are in the former. Dispersal of probable the repatriation of the refugees in the refugees among other states is small. No state Refugees in West Bengal 489 of India really welcomes them. When the GOI camps. Small though our sample was, there decided (June 6) to revise an earlier stand of is enough corroborative evidence to make this not allowing dispersal, most states pleaded one much clear: Almost everything is still make- excuse or another for not accepting refugees. shift. This is reflecte6 in the poor conditions of The chances are that West Bengal above all a good many shelter facilities; the inadequate will have to live with the refugee problem so water supply; the hospitals few in number; the long as their return to East Bengal is only a great shortage of doctors, nurses, and medical pipe dream. At this point it would be fitting supplies; the absence of school facilities; in- to say something about the burdens shouldered adequate supply of nourishing food for the ly West Bengal and the government of India, young; and the same may be said of a variety but I prefer to give the pride of place to the of other items to su;tain bare living. In mon- forthcoming report. Instead, I would rather say soon conditions, and this year's monsoon in a word or two about the refugee conditions in West Bengal is the most plentiful in twenty the camps and about measures the government years, the seamy side of camp life is magnified employs to improve them as well as note some manyfold. The monsoon has turned the country- of the things the government cannot do for side soothingly green, but to the multitudes of fear of upsetting altogether the delicate and the refugees it is a cruel experience. The ref- troublesome economic and political balance of erence is not to one of the big camps reportedly forces of West Bengal. 70 percent under water. In the two smaller My impression upon meeting the evacuees camps we looked into on a rainy day we only is that they don't seem to be people who have dirtied our shoes; the refugees, on the other suffered great trials in their track to the Indian hand, who sleep on the wet or damp ground border. They are silent, cheerless, and idle; but with nothing between them and the ground for the most part they are not emaciated- and no blanket to cover them will reap more looking, starving people. The food ration, pneumonia, tuberculosis, bronchitis, dysentery, about which more later, does apply in most and other assorted diseases. Mid-October, when cases. Encountering them outside the camps the monsoon gives up its last, is looked upon one might take no more notice of them than as the day of deliverance. The same mid- of any other Bengalis. This said, it is equally October heralds the coming of the winter true that they are not free Bengalis moving season, and how well the refugees will stand about at will; they are in camps constrained by it will depend upon the timely arrival of 6 to a regimen that condition entails. Few of them 7 million blankets. have brought along any wordly goods and only This litany of woe is jaded old stuff to many small amounts of money or none at all. Rings, from the outside looking in, and I am not watches, and ornaments are possessed by few; reciting it merely to evoke greater sympathy most of them were removed from their persons for those who for no fault of their own must by unfriendly Muslims or Majlis workers. The live with catastrophe. The point I wish to make lPuts are a picture of plenty of nothing when is that, despite all the shortcomings affecting measured by such basics as a change of cloth- the life of the refugees, the Indian government ing, total lack of bedding and bedsteads, and and the state government of West Bengal have an inadequate supply of cooking utensils. If performed remarkably well. What stands out any improvement in these and other respects in the huge Salt Lake camp, for example, is is to take place, it can come only from the not the makeshift arrangements but that there .resources of the government of India and the are arrangements, however inadequate; that international relief organizations: For reasons shelter huts were and are being built as the I shall mention shortly, the able-bodied refu- influx increases; that the building material is gees cannot be gainfully employed and their somehow procured and delivered; that the lanes dependence upon outside assistance is total. between the sheds have been laid out in rea- This is a situation pregnant with dire conse- sonably good fashion; that wells are being dug quences if the refugee problem should become although, observing the long water queue, not a permanent one. yet in sufficient numbers; that the rations are A word about living conditions in the bought, transported, and distributed; that there 490 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 is a hospital and other medical facilities at expenditures, including one-tenth of a rupee least to cope with emergency cases; that, what- in cash for every adult and one-twentieth of a ever the shortages, there is recognition that rupee for every child, raises the total expendi- they have to be whittled down; that beyond it tures to Rs2.5 a day. Wheat is procured from all there is an organizational mechanism that the adequate stocks of the Food Corporation somehow sees to it that supplies of the volun- and rice from the same source, plus some for- tary agencies as well as those procured inter- eign contributions now beginning to arrive; nally are channeled to ultimate users. The this explains why prices of these commodities prime responsibility rests with the government have remained stable. The prices of supple- of India and its constituent parts; and it de- mentary foods, particularly legumes, which are serves high credit for achieving so much, over- locally procured, have risen steeply. While the night so to speak, and in conditions of in- ration is considered adequate except for the describable complexity. A purist or a Bank wheat component to which the refugees are not feasibility study team could find much fault used, supplementary food for children is a with every aspect just touched upon; but, to major problem; the estimate that malnutrition the extent that the issue is the survival of 7 affects 40 percent of the children may err on or 8 million people in the midst of limited the low side. Since the government has not human and material resources, he is a bold specifically obligated itself to provide it, agen- man who thinks he could do much better. cies such as UNICEF, WHO, CARE, Red Cross, The GOI is not without high marks for keep- and OXFAM are the most important sources for ing the lid tight on communal riots in the wake narrowing the gap. of the mounting refugee tide. It is a "non- The refugees cannot make any contribution development" worthy of many a useful devel- to that end nor to many another sharply felt opment. History of Muslim and Hindu com- need of a material sort. They simply have no munities tearing themselves to pieces in 1951, earning power and no prospect of reversing 1961, and 1964 or the less gruesome affairs in this condition; they are admitted only as for- between or since then should be invoked to eigners and as such, in the official view, are not note the total absence of such episodes since entitled to any employment. To make sure that April of this year. In the light of the past ex- this condition holds, there is a kind of an in- perience induced by less provocation than visible yet functioning sanitary cordon sur- more recent events might have brought about, rounding the camps. Military commandants of this is novel and encouraging. The forbearance the camps see to that. It is understandable then of the government, of the Indian press, and of why in the city of Calcutta one doesn't en- the populace in general must be underscored counter refugees and not only because they for yet another reason: the decidedly pro-West are indistinguishable from the local population. Pakistan position taken by most Muslim leaders This is the more remarkable when one stops and Muslim press in India. Regardless of the to think that Salt Lake camp with its 150,000 pent-up emotions which give rise to such sup- inmates is only 15 miles away from the center port, it goes against the grain of everything of Calcutta. The possible but limited exception India stands for in relation to the events of to this state of affairs is provided by some of recent months. Nevertheless, while the tensions the 1.5 million or so refugees who live with and the desire to "settle accounts" are there, their friends and relations. Those of them who they have not been permitted to translate them- succeeded in shedding their refugee identity selves into the familiar forms of pillage and may be competing for jobs. Very few well- murder. educated, professional people have secured jobs The government of India has undertaken to as East Pakistanis, but in the main the total provide the refugees with shelter and food, but number of employed among the refugees out- clothing only in hard cases. The ration is made side the camps can't be large; besides, the up of 300 grams of rice, 100 grams of wheat, labor market is very thin. The strain on them, 50 grams of dahl, 150 grams of vegetables, and as on their friends and relatives, must be very bits of salt and spices. The total daily cost of severe. feeding a person is one rupee and all other I believe that the restriction on their em- Refugees in West Bengal 491 ployment has little to do with the "foreigner" people cooped up in camps with no hope of classification. Politics aside (if that is possible), escaping beyond their confines. While better the record of the government of India regard- rations and overall better amenities are badly ing the refugees is one of great compassion, needed and welcome, they will not prevent the amply proved by deed. It might not have im- rise of unrest and rebelliousness. This is bound posed that restriction or imposed it only per- to occur among a people bereft of any illusions functorily, but for the fact that they are mostly about returning home or any likelihood of a in the unemployment-ridden West Bengal reasonable integra:ion within the Indian com- where the industrial scene leaves much to be munity. One cannot but sympathize with the desired and law-and-order problems are at their dilemma India is likely to be confronted with: worst. Second, .in certain areas the refugees ex- to contain the refugees in the camps by force ceed the number of local population. To let of arms or throw the gates wide open and the former loose in search of employment court an explosion in Calcutta and in other would be to invite political and economic up- cities, which "tremors," as one put it, "would heaval. With variations, this would hold for even shake the fair garden city of Delhi." West Bengal in general. Possibly to underscore Miraculous shifts in policy on the part of that the refugees are not entitled to employ- West Pakistan may prove this prognosis falla- ment, even the construction of the camps is cious. On the other hand, if it is indeed beyond carried on by outside labor in most instances. miracles and only the familiar political stances Here and there they have been given access continue to prevail, India will find itself pretty to chores but to chores involving hardly any much in the position outlined. The only way skills. for India to escape the choice of either evil is Despite the many impediments, some of to enable the refugees to go in security where the camp refugees have secured temporary em- they came from. If there is a pilot who can ployment, although not in industry; the strongly navigate safely between this Scylla and Cha- organized trade unions of West Bengal pre- rybdis, I wish he would come forward. In his clude that. It is easier in agriculture, but those absence, and no return to the homeland a fact who ventured may not do so again. Where the beyond dispute, :his much is warranted: It is going daily wages are Rs2 to 4, the refugees inconceivable that so great a number of refu- are willing to work for one rupee. Such distress gees can be kept in the camps indefinitely with wages have not gone unnoticed, and the com- no right to forage for jobs. I suspect that this plaints raised by the local agricultural laborers is well understood in official circles, and only are likely to put an end to such competition. time can tell which way the government might In short, for the reasons indicated the refugees turn. Here Mac reminds me that India can are essentially an idle, unemployed lot of absorb 1.5 percent increase in population (the people and grave problems are in store for all 8 million refugees) as it does more than this concerned. This is increasingly recognized by every year without great distress. This should the officialdom as the idea of early repatriation enable it to face up to reality and disperse the begins to fade away. It is less clear if this refugees as soon as, and here comes the catch, prospect is shared by the refugees; currently the move is politically feasible. In that event, their choice apparently lies between self- the problem would be one of providing India deception or the realization that life has noth- with additional investment resources required ing or little to offer. When the "moment of to employ them. So runs Mac's argument. In truth" dawns all around, which is to say that the long run, Mac's suggestion may well have no political solution is possible calling for to be acted upon, but only in the long run. their return home, India's problem will become Eschewing for the moment all the economic, excruciatingly more difficult and urgent than political, and linguistic difficulties dispersal it appears today. The financial and administra- would run into. the fact of the matter is that tive burdens India is shouldering would seem so far there are no indications that the govern- much less grave then than now. The current ment is thinking along such lines; and for the status quo based on charity could in no way time being Hobson's choice is about the only provide any contentment for millions of idling option open to India. 492 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 So much for some of the things observed and an IDA credit judiciously spent belongs in and impressions carried away and interpreted. that category. Another way of putting it would I now turn to something else even at the risk be to say that such a credit would obviate the that you might consign me to perdition. necessity of reducing developmental outlays by As I mentioned at the outset, Mac and the that much. With the cost of caring for the other members of staff are preparing a paper refugees now running at an annual rate of on India's extra financial needs induced by the nearly $1 billion compared with no more than refugee avalanche. At the same time, as you $200 million of refugee aid now in the offing, know, the GOI is planning to seek an IDA a large cut in developmental outlays seems in- credit to help cover part of them. I am sure that evitable; this should be prevented to the extent the paper will provide sufficient fuel to justify, possible. My apologies for introducing an eco- in your mind, the granting of such a credit. In nomic argument, and I am back on the theme the meantime, I have been hearing noises about that the credit in question is not of the con- precedents preventing IDA from such an under- ventional type and that it must be handled with taking. If this is so, let us not forget that the a strong dash of noneconomic realities. I can- situation in India is itself without precedent not tell you what approach the Bank should and I do not believe that the precedence ques- employ in this instance or how to skin this tion is relevant. particular kind of cat. I leave this to the Bank. Banker and economist that I am not, I am Peter, the preceding may strike you as just tempted nevertheless to put in my two cents another species of my "irritating evangelism," worth to this end, and not necessarily on eco- and you may consider me the naivest of naive nomic grounds. I assume that the Bank is not for bringing up some arguments which, ad- a "regular" Bank, and I do so not only for the mittedly, do not add up to two plus two making sake of my argument. It is an institution dedi- four in the accustomed fashion. This I will cated to development only insofar as the end grant you, but you must grant me that the result is betterment of man's condition. This is very reason for having refugee camps of the why the Bank is justifiably involved in such magnitude one finds in India is exceptional seemingly noneconomic projects as education even in this year of our Lord, 1971. And the and population control. In the final analysis the responsibility to help sustain this mass of hu- ultimate purpose in either case is to improve manity is not only India's or of the international the quality of the individuals as well as of the organizations I referred to earlier. It is also community as a whole. I submit that, apart mine and yours and that of the Bank as a from assisting India in a financial emergency, whole. The judgment, therefore, about grant- the Bank can treat the "refugee loan" similarly. ing the "refugee loan" cannot avoid such con- The benefits of the projects mentioned are siderations. If the articles of the Bank's incorpo- long drawn-out affairs, as they must be, whereas ration don't provide for the kind of credit the life of the refugees calls for immediately that presumably departs from the more normal enhanced encouragement to which the Bank attributes of a Bank project loan, they should can contribute its share. be rewritten or a new article added in tune One of the lasting impressions of a camp with the conditions imposed upon India for no visit is that any amount of aid measured against fault of its own. Finally, even if the loan be the needs is like a drop in the bucket. This is considered only as a gesture of goodwill, I am not to minimize the fact that every bit helps, eager to see the Bank make that gesture. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 493 37. Agriculture-Issues and Programs This paper was Ladejinsky's contribution to the World Bank's annual report, "Economic Situation and Prospects of India," May 10, 1972. By this time Ladejinsky had come to dread the necessity for the preparation of this annual contribution. He had already had his say on the problems and issues he regarded as fundamental. At this stage, he felt, the choice was to be either trivial or repetitive, and he would not deal with trivia. He need not have been so concerned. The fundamentals with which he was so deeply concerned had become, due in significant degree to his own earlier efforts, the subject of a continuous debate in India in academic and research circles, in the intellectual media, within the government, and among politicians. Year by year ad hoc national commissions i3sued new reports bearing on one or another of the basic problems, and new programs and policies were initiated by the government to deal with them. These developments, together with passing experience, enabled Ladejinsky to return, year after year, to the fundamental problems and issues which concerned him, investing them with a surprising freshness and even a heightened interest. Thus, in the present paper, he reports once again on various aspects of the Green Revolution. Rural poverty this time is viewed in the context of a battery of rural develop- ment programs which have been developed around the nucleus of j:he Small Farmers Development Agency and the crash program for rural employment previously encountered. Cooperative credit is again scrutinized not only in the light of the latest data but also in terms of the proposal for an alternative scheme for agricultural credit advocated by the National Commission for Agriculture. He examines the new guidelines announced for landholding ceilings and points out the essential error of this emphasis. (The treatment of the new ceiling program here accounts for the omission of his published October 13, 1971, article (CB-1 191 on the same subject.) One further word is appropriate about the battery of rural development or rural anti- poverty programs Ladejinsky describes and assesses in this paper. Although he is obviously wary of them and they certainly do not represent his preferred means for dealing with rural poverty, he nevertheless-being less sanguine about the likelihood for adoption of his preferred means-strongly supports them. "Finally, despite the problems which beset all the programs, there can be no turning back; they do represent areas of great promise aimed at the right things by attempting to build employment, better standards of living, and social justice into economic growth." Space considerations have required the deletion of Ladejinsky's treatment of the issue of farm taxation. The Agricultural Scene the headlines. Early in 1971 India was afflicted with damaging drought and devastating floods, IN THE "YEAR OF THE REFUGEES AND WAR," but such are the new trends in the agricultural Indian development problems are more numer- economy that 1971-72 registered the further ous than usual, but food shortages do not claim rise in agricultu:-al production previously de- 494 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 scribed. So depending on one's definition, and equally true that numerous farmers have taken with the present crop prospect and the buffer advantage of the new technological trinity- stock well above the fourth plan targets, it may assured water supply, Mexican "dwarf" wheat be said that India is on the threshold of self- varieties, and chemical fertilizers-the basics of sufficiency. In view of the situation in the not what is popularly known as the "Green Revo, too distant past, this is by far India's major lution." With wheat yields rising sharply in the economic achievement in the fourth plan. entire northern tier of India at a compound Critics often point out that the increase in rate of 7.5 percent a year, the success in wheat agricultural production is limited to a few provides a window on the new technology crops and that the Green Revolution has a which is being extended beyond wheat. The "narrow foundation." This "narrow foundation" chief beneficiaries are the large farmers with is part of the strictures leveled against the new ample resources. Since the new agricultural agricultural strategy. And yet, though this and practices are neutral to scale (apart from the other problems are still to be mastered, the possible economics of capital intensive mecha- preoccupation with them is greater than ever. nization which are yet to be established), a In the light of rice research under way now, number of small farmers are also involved. the next few years promise significant results. More recently, along with the original Green Nor is it too soon to display a similar concern Revolution, there is developing a "mini" Green about the vital commercial crops which leave Revolution which is a mixture of traditional much to be desired. The fact that the passage and modern practices and is applicable to more from traditional to modernized agriculture can- than just wheat. Such developments are any- not be effected as if by magic is no reason why thing but common; but, where they do take these crops should continue to stagnate in the place, as in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh for sixth year after the advent of the Green Revo- example, they make the difference between a lution. It explains the often expressed view poverty-stricken life and a reasonably secure that "the revolution we have witnessed has one. been a wheat and price revolution, but not yet Thus the prevailing psychological urge is to one of the widespread agricultural and rural share in betterment even if the means to realize development." This implied critique must be it are still not there. Generally speaking, the tempered, however, if we take a larger view climate for improvement is good. Therein lies than the time horizon of the fourth plan. Dur- not only the precondition for rising produc- ing the period 1964-65 through 1971-72 ag- tivity but also for profound changes in the pat- gregate food production increased from 89 to tern of life and thinking in the Indian country- 112 million tons, or a 10 percent per capita side. In the areas where it has gone farthest, increase. But for the new agricultural strategy, in Punjab and Haryana, the process of moderni- India would have to import a minimum of zation is no longer confined only to techniques about 8 to 10 million tons of wheat yearly at of cultivation; there, it is seeping through into a cost of $600 to 800 million. Wheat accounts other walks of rural life, stretching from mainly for the rise in output, and there are rea- changes in the consumption pattern down sons to believe that its production will con- through better living conditions and in a va- tinue to rise, even if at a lower rate. If so, at riety of other ways, including the first signs of current consumer prices-and barring an act a break with rural squalor. That economic of God-a surplus above internal demand can- values are gaining over traditional considera- not be excluded. This in turn would pose a tions is observable in the mode of community question of how to dispose of the same, espe- affairs, the urban-oriented behavior, the rise of cially if present support prices remain un- individualism among the farmers, and the fact changed. that farming as an occupation in those states is The overall increase of 23 million tons of considered highly prestigious. By the same grain between 1964-65 and 1971-72 has not token, the Green Revolution is affecting the come by osmosis. Favorable climatic conditions old established relationships in rural society. To have played their very important role, but it is be sure, not all of these changes are beneficial; Agriculture-Issues and Programs 495 but the loosening of the bonds of a formerly and assert tha, India's food problem has stagnant economy and society and the reaching been solved for good. [Author's italics.]' out for new horizons carry a significance of From such an unconditional assertion to eupho- their own that cannot be overestimated. r In the past year there appeared a spate of Raaout th fut ontrti of the Gteen articles with such titles as How Green is the Green Revolution?" The argument of the skep- goes so far as to state categorically that tics rests on the proposition that "nature's The green revolution will, therefore, give us bounty" is responsible for the upsurge of agri- now not a great deal of quantitative in- cultural production and productivity. Favor- creases in grain but a qualitative improve- able climatic conditions continue to make the ment-a diversification of diet patterns away difference between a good and a poor crop, but from foodgrains and in favor of processed they don't explain the character of the gradual foods, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs and meat shift from traditional to modernized agricul- products, and a changing cropping pattern, ture where it is taking place. Nor is rising out- changing away from foodgrains towards put the best measurement of the changing commercial crops like jute, cotton and oil- scene. More to the point as a sign of ambition seeds.2 and endeavor is the veritable upsurge in the utilization of inputs. For the recent past this is One hopes that this anticipated shape of things examined in chapter 3 [omitted), but longer- will become a living reality, but the problems term trends are also relevant. Fertilizer con- standing in its way are formidable. sumption (N+P2+K_O) increased from 306,000 metric tons in 1960-61 to 2,350,000 Constraints-environmental metric tons in 1970-71. During the same and socioeconomic period the number of electric and diesel pump India is indeed only at the beginning of the sets increased from 421,000 to over 2.4 million, modernization p::ocess. The crop production in- the number of tube wells from 90,000 to dexes of selected districts and regions and sharp 460,000, and tractors from 31,000 to 140,000. investment differentials between "progressive" Since most of these inputs, and supplemen- and "nonprogressive" farmers in the same cate- tary ones, materialized in the past five years, gories (small, medium, and large) tell the two conclusions stand out: "The first one story at a glance.' This is part of what is in- is that the combination of factors cited here, creasingly spoken of as "regional differences." in addition to favorable prices, has raised out- In one knowledgeable view, "the decade of put beyond what Would have been possible in 1961-71 seems to have accentuated regional favorable climatic conditions but without the differences . . . backward areas seem to have attributes of the new technology; the second gone still more backward by comparison." one is the willingness to invest, experiment, and Even the areas under high-yielding varieties take risks, and this in itself is a break with prac- are characterized by wide variations in the tices of the pre-Green Revolution days. quantitative and qualitative means of produc- In the light of these accomplishments, a tion. The upgrading process must proceed keen student of the country's agricultural scene slowly even under the most propitious circum- was moved to say: 1. A. M. Khusro, "Agriculture as Business," The Whatever else may be wrong with India in illustrated fl"eekly of India (February 13, 1972), this decade-population explosions, limited P. 19. 2. Ibid. success on the family planning front, mas- 3. K. William Easter and Shrinath Singh, The sive unemployment, competitive communal Importance of Regional Differences in Agricultural tensions arising therefrom and educational Development, paper presented at the Annual Con- food problens will no longer ference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Statis- malaise-the ftics, New Delhi, December 1971. pester us in this decade in any serious man- 4. Asok Mitra, "Aspects of Levels of Develop- net. One can perhaps stick one's neck out ment," Yojana iFebruary 6, 1972), p. 110. 496 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 stances, and these are not present in India. The of agriculture is one of the best known. During fact is that three-fourths of India's cultivated the past five years mechanization has been acreage is under "dry" farming, depending en- rapidly expanding, and the ongoing debate is tirely upon the vicissitudes of the monsoon, whether it serves a useful purpose in a country This is well understood in governmental circles, where rural unemployment and underemploy- and it explains why vast sections of the country ment is rampant. There is no denying that the have not been touched by transformation and new practices are highly intensive and labor equally vast parts can only boast of "small demanding; but at the same time these prac- islands within." It is the more surprising, there- tices also give rise to labor-saving devices such fore, that, though the Green Revolution is far as tractors, rotary ploughs, harrows and tillers, from green all over, between 1968-69 and sprayers and threshers-to mention modern 1971-72 the acreage under the new practices equipment most of which, other than combine has increased from 9 to 18 million hectares or threshers, is already on the farms of many by 15 percent of the cultivated food grain area. practitioners of the new technology. Labor- But it may be a long time before this ratio is absorbing and labor-displacing practices meet significantly increased. Not the least of the each other, and the question is how the two problems is that "land is going out of agricul- balance off in the light of this novel experience. ture every day at an alarming rate due to the The answer to this question depends upon spread of industry, roads, houses, salinity and carefully gathered empirical evidence which is alkalinity and various forms of erosion. At the only beginning to make its appearance. The same time, population is growing at 2.25 per- World Bank's arrangement with appropriate in- cent per year, thereby making imperative the stitutions to study the problem might help shed production of more and more food from less light on this question. For the time being, how- and less land."- ever, the answer seems to be that at this stage Apart from environmental and other limita- of mechanization-and barring the use of com- tions, the contention propounded in these re- bine threshers-along with the rise in real ports on previous occasions that the Green wages, the demand for labor has also increased. Revolution is primarily "selective" remains The immediate "victims" of tractor power are valid. It was natural for the new technology to the bullocks. A 30-acre farm employs four concentrate in regions with optimum condi- pairs of bullocks; with the introduction of the tions, especially with assured irrigation facili- tractor 60 to 75 percent of them are displaced, ties or reliable rainfall. The new agricultural but this is not the case of the four men behind strategy calls for large investments, and it was the bullocks. They are more than gradually in the nature of such requirements that rich or absorbed by the labor-demanding new prac- relatively well-off farmers were the first to take tices, especially on the biological side which is advantage of the new opportunities and profit land augmenting, or in secondary or tertiary from them. While smaller farmers have nor occupations, which are also an attribute of the been bypassed altogether, the majority of them, new technology. The findings of a study of and particularly the tenants and sharecroppers, farm management data for one Punjab district are often barred from active participation in concludes on this note: the new agricultural trends for lack of re- sources. The preconditions inherent in the new agricultural strategy have raised these already "the immediate impact of tractor-use is the existing issues into sharper focus, at the same displacement of farm labor to the extent of time adding brand new ones of their own. about 15 percent and bullocks to the extent The issue of "selectivity" aside, there are of about 60 percent. . . . When the dynamic other developments, direct and indirect, at- effects of tractorization such as increase in tributed to the new technology. Mechanization cropping intensity and yield per acre are taken into account, output is found to in- crease by about 28 percent and employment 5. M. S. Swaminathan, "Indian Agriculture To- by about 7 percent . . . it would appear, morrow," Yojana (February 6, 1972), p. 113. therefore, that the employment potential Agriculture-Issues and Programs 497 from farm tractorization for the economy "normal" labor force and reduces its wage in- as a whole is considerable."' take by 40 percent; but, unlike the tractor, it is The observable, if unquantifiable, experience only labor saving and not land augmenting. the ohe observable ente, Gexpenc At the moment the number of combines is too in other parts of the hotbed of the Green Revo- small to be overly concerned, but more are lution, the Punjab, seems to point in the same likely to come; foc, in the areas of concentra- direction. Under the impact of mechanization, tion of the new technology, mechanization the tractors leading the parade, the radical feeds on mechanization. The incentive is com- changes in the overall intensive cropping pat- ing from the gradual mastering of high-yielding terns have acquired a dynamism all of their varieties, demand for increased production, as- own. As such, it has been labor absorbing sured farm prices, and rising wage rates-par- rather than labor displacing. The sharp rise in ticularly during peak seasons. This is why a output and farm income has favorably affected studart di m eakaon ts is wh a student of mechanization went so far as to say employment in such related fields as irrigation, that "in pockets of high agricultural growth ... road building, transportation, marketing, ware- one should expec: a relationship between the housing, processing of agricultural products, rate of mechanizion on the one hand, and and in manufacturing of a large array of farm wage rates ... on the other, to be in the same inputs. with direction as in a developed economy." "The the changes in the consumption pattern and directio n in t instanoe' of othr iproedlivng onitins,isbeginning same direction" in this instance doesn't, of other improved living conditions, isrbenning course, mean leve ls of mechanization similar to give more employment to masons, carpenters, to those attained ;n the United States or in any blacksmiths, weavers, potters, utensil makers, number of Western European countries, espe- tailors, and so on. While no data are available cially in regard to displacement of labor. If to measure these developments, it would seem nothing else, labor required for the irrigation that this rhythm of activity calls for more an eater man-ee sor to idian rathr thn les emloymnt.and .water management so crucial to Indian rather than less employment, agriculture will preclude that kind of erosion Nevertheless, the issue is far from settled in labor demand. and only in part on account of the prevailing Whatever the future trend, one can discern feeling that the available studies on mechaniza- a g . tio ar o h atwr ntesbet e a growing opposition to a free-for-all mecha- nion are not the last word on the subject. Be- nization process. Until about a year ago, the sides, there are other bits of evidence contrary official policy was heavily weighted in favor to the one cited in the same Punjab and also of "the more mechanization the better" through in West Pakistan and the Philippines. Even a the subsidization of farm machinery and credit confirmed supporter of tractorization as a labor- availability for the same on easy terms. Ques- absorbing tool notes that "it is not certain tions of employent were not to the fore. More whether this absorption will be full or partial."' . . These lingering doubts stem primarily from the rectly, thistpolicy;isnbeightemperediwithpe- folwig spect to the tractor; and, while nothing spe- apprehension of labor displacement following cifically is said about the combine thresher, the the spread of mechanization in scope and so- chances are it will be subject to severe restric- phistication. The first appearance in the Punjab tions. The imposition of a variety of duties of 75 combine harvesters is a case in point. .' 7 cwhich greatly increase the cost of an imported Harvesting-threshing is the most labor-demand- . tractor is not only a measure in favor of the ing and the highest-paid work. But according to domestic tractor industry but also a sign of a a study in preparation by the Institute of Eco- "go slow" policy, at least until such time as all nomic Growth at Delhi University, a modern pertinent issues bearing on tractorization are combine thresher displaces 30 percent of the sorted out. Moie important are the often re- curring references to a "selective" mechaniza- 6. C. H. Hanumantha Rao, "The Impact of Trac- torization on Farm Equipment," memo to the Na- tional Commission on Agriculture. 8. C. H. Hanumantha Rao, "Farm Mechanization 7. A. M. Khusro, "Structural Changes in Indian in a Labor-Abundant Economy," Economic and Po- Agriculture," mimeographed, p. 24. litical Veekly (annual number, 1972). 498 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 tion policy. It is quite likely that the National beneficiaries of the future shift in incomes in Commission on Agriculture will lay down new favor of agriculture as well as within the agri- guidelines for a mechanization policy, cultural sector activated by the price support In typical Indian rural conditions of land policy. On the other hand, the burdens of ownership, resources, and marketed surpluses, change are likely to fall on those who gain income inequality is a normal state of affairs. least from it. This is not an argument against Since it takes a minimum of RsIO,000 to 12,000 the new technology. It relates only to the need to reequip a 7 to 10-acre holding-minus a to make available resource input allocations tractor and appliances to go with it-the with an eye to raising the number of partici- tractor is not normally within the reach of a pants in the Green Revolution. Unless ap- medium-sized farmer, let alone of the smaller propriate measures are taken, the Green Revo- holder, unless they can secure cooperative lution is likely to exacerbate income disparities. credit. More often than not they can get only An economist not given to alarms and a be- insufficient credit and, on many occasions, none liever that the Green Revolution "has done at all, for the distribution of credit in most enough to solve India's grain problem during Indian villages is biased in favor of the affluent. the 1970's," is nevertheless alarmed. "If orderly Many would-be innovators can be likened to redistribution of surplus is not quickly brought tenants who receive land under a reform but about," he writes, "the situation can easily blow not much else. Not a few are excluded from tip and there are already straws in the wind.""' the purview of the Green Revolution altogether A problem within the context of the new or participate in a limited way at best. This is technology is the position of the tenants and not an argument against modernization, but it sharecroppers who overtly and covertly culti- tends to make the rich farmer richer and the vate about 20 percent of the land. The Green poor relatively poorer. Revolution has not formally imposed new re- Data to measure income distribution among strictions upon these farmers; in practice, how- the principal farm groups are not available. ever, it weakens their hold on the land and However, some measure of income inequality their already unenviable economic position. is indicated by the fact that 62 percent of the For a variety of reasons, their displacement into cultivators farm less than 5 acres. Households the ranks of agricultural laborers is likely to be of landless farm laborers as a percentage of speeded up and their capacity to make a living total households-with exception of Kashmir impaired accordingly. where it is only 2.5 percent-range from a low The new package of practices and good sup- of 12 percent (Rajasthan) to a high of 35 port prices, on top of no land or agricultural in- percent (Andhra Pradesh). About 20 percent come tax to speak of, make modern farming of the land is farmed by tenants, but in ten in India an enticing proposition for farmers states tenancy is this percentage or higher," It with large holdings ecologically well-placed. should be noted, too, that, when incomes are It is understandable why well-off farmers strive low and savings limited, as is true for the ma- to invest in more land or lease more land. Good jority of small farmers, a good deal of their as this is for productivity, from the point of food must be purchased in the slack season in view of the tenants it is anything but a boon. conditions often of rising prices. This is on The first consequence of rising land values is top of unequal access to factors of production. that rents have risen above the traditional (al- These alone, apart from the effects of the though illegal under the reforms) 50-50 share structural configuration of land owned or oper- of the crop. This may be unavoidable in condi- ated, raises the degree of intra-agricultural class tions of land hunger, hardly any security of income inequality. tenure, and evasion of rent controls; but hard- Surplus-producing farmers (particularly ships increase for those who cannot extract those in the wheat regions) are the major from the land a return large enough to meet living requirements over and above the rental 9. Ranjit Sen, "On Rural Poverty," Economic and Political Weekly (December 25, 1971). 10. A. M. Khusro, "Agriculture as Business." Agriculture-Issues and Programs 499 obligations and inputs which are often at their better days-all thes2 are adding to the frustra- own cost. But the real issue is not higher rentals tions of the poor. The have-nots know that but the desire of the owners to be rid of the "over there," near and distant, the rural haves tenants altogether and resume the land for are enjoying considerable gains. All this has tultivation with modern equipment and hired affected the thinking of some of the economic labor, all with the view of unencumbering the and political elite w ithin and outside the gov- land from any claims on it. The ostensible ernment. These groups are beginning to recog- rationale for all of this is that the current farm nize that development divorced from the ques- policy calls for efficient production, larger and tion of poverty is a threat to the stability of 'compact holdings, and centralized management the country, and the issue is how to invest in the hands of a single owner; tenancy and development programs with an anti-poverty sharecropping, the argument runs, have no orientation. place in it. Nor is it unreasonable to assume The enormity of the problem becomes obvi- that the same consequence is in store for some ous when viewed against the dimension of the of the mini-owners. rural poor. They are made up by the landless, How far this technological side effect is labor households with some land, and a number being translated into reality is another matter. of owners in the group holding less than 5 Statistical evidence one way or another is in- acres. The study group on the welfare of the adequate, but observations on the spot indicate weaker sections of the village community that separation from the land under different reported in 1961 that 80 percent of the rural guises is not rare. Wholesale dispossession is households had annual incomes less than Rs800, not likely, partly because a great deal of it and of these 45 to 50 percent had incomes less had already taken place before the Green Revo- than Rs500." At such income levels, many lution and partly because this would mean live below the poverty line. Just how many is courting trouble for the big owner. But the estimated by R. S. Minhas ' (table below). practice and threat of turning tenants and It appears that between the mid-1960s and sharecroppers into agricultural landless laborers 1967-68 there was a slow but steady decline in are there. Once again, the new agricultural the proportion of people below the poverty policy did not plan it this way; but it takes line and in absolute numbers as well. But even place so long as the ineffective security of ten- so, "after 20 year:; of economic development, ure provisions cannot prevent such develop- between two-fifth:i to one-half of the rural ments. The upshot of it all is that meaningful people of India today are living in abject tenancy reforms which were difficult to enforce poverty," in round figures, between 154 to 210 before the Green Revolution have become million people. Another estimate disputes the much more so since its advent. decline in numbers and the total is given as 250 million." A breakdown by states points to roughly the same story.14 Whichever set of figures is nearest correct-and probably not one We have discussed income inequalities above, of the three is the last word on the subject- but the issue that beclouds the entire agricul- the magnitude of the problem is obvious. tural scene is rural poverty. Agricultural growth is a goal all are agreed upon, but in the pe- culiarly difficult Indian agricultural structure even self-sufficiency on higher consumption and 11. E. P. W. Da Costa, "A Portrait of Poverty in qualitative levels is not necessarily an anti- India," in Challenge of Poverty in India, A. J. Fon- seca, ed. (Bombay: Vicas Publishers, 1971), p. 50. poverty remedy for millions of disadvantaged. 12. R. S. Minhas, "Mass Poverty and Strategy of Rural mass poverty in India is an old story; Rural Development in India," Washington, D.C.: and the industrial growth of the country, the World Bank, Economic Development Institute, the (March 1971, mimeographed). new agricultural developments, the growing (M a b mi a n the Minimum Level number of the rich in industry and commerce, of Living and the Rural Poor," Indian Economic Re- the emerging middle class, and the rising ex- view (April 1970) pectations that followed upon promises of 14. Ranjit Sen, "On Rural Poverty," table 1. 500 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Below Rs240 a year Below Rs200 a year contribution of the new technology, despite the at 1960-61 prices at 1960-61 prices imbalances which flow from it. As an instru- ment of greater productivity it has proved its Year Percent Millions Percent Mi/lions worth, and what is needed is more techno- 1956-57 65.0 215 52.4 13 logically involved farmers rather than fewer. 1957-58 63.2 212 50.2 169 This is the way to take the country forward 1960-61 59.4 211 46.0 164 rather than getting it stuck at the periphery of 1961-62 56.4 206 43.6 159 the Green Revolution. Fruitful biological re- 1963-64 57.8 221 44.2 169 search that might open the dry land areas to 1964-65 51.6 202 39.3 154 better cropping is, of course, the essence of the 1967-68 50.6 210 37.1 154 process. But this, as with other forms of techno- logical innovation, will not suffice if the farm- The computations of the table and guesses ers of those regions are to benefit from them about the post-1968 period may support the fully. As one put it and with application to following conclusions:7 (a) Between the mid- India as well, "most of the problems of South- 1950s and 1967-68 the absolute number of east Asia will not be solved by straight line people below the poverty line did not undergo manure furrowing . . . but by other sorts of any clearly discernible change. (b) Their num- inputs."' bers seem to fall in good harvest years but The "other sorts of inputs' as part of an ex- shoot up in bad crop years. panded technology are familiar. Apart from the The emphasis of the fourth plan on "the already mentioned vastly expanded research common man, the weaker sections, and the activities, they are: a rural credit service to less privileged," the political slogan to "abolish serve those who need it most; an extension poverty," and the more recent outcroppings of service worthy of its name; panchayats (village a similar sort are welcome signs of great appre- organizations) which are indeed developmental hension about the problem. Stepped-up indus- bodies; security of tenure; rents which are not trial development is not likely to make a dent usurious; ceilings on agricultural land which in the number of the poor, and only the rise in are not paper propositions; consolidation of the productive capacity of millions of small holdings; farm wage scales in the less endowed farmers and agricultural laborers through the states which are relevant to the human condi- rejuvenation of the agricultural economy as a tion; uplifting the position of small farmers whole can make a difference in their standard and tenants by alleviating restrictive practices of living. Failing that, in Minhas's view, there such as difficult access to credit because of the is the additional danger that the water-seed- tenurial handicap; a vastly expanded rural fertilizer-tractor revolution, "which has not de- works program to lift employment among rural livered much yet" might "get stuck at the unemployed beyond "digging holes and filling periphery." them up," now in an experimental stage; and We do not agree with the stricture that it the essentials for much of the above, the aug- "has not delivered much yet." We are in agree- mentation of national resources via greater ment, however, that an "integrated" or multi- revenues from the well-to-do rural sector, which purpose program of agricultural development currently contributes little by way of direct involving the less endowed ecological regions taxation. is the order of the day, just as the agricultural strategy of 5 or 6 years ago was the order for Rural programs its day. A new strategy is both inevitable and In the 1960s India had unsuccessful experiences overdue. Almost every advance carries some with a variety of rural aid programs. The fail- penalty, but in no way does this diminish the tire then is not necessarily an excuse for not 15. For details, see R. S. Minhas, "Rural Poverty, 16. Manning Nash, Agricultural Revolution in Land Redistribution and Development Strategy: Facts Southeast Asia, vol. 2, report of the Second SEADA]; and Policy," Indian Economic Review (April 1970), International Conference on Development in South- pp. 97-128. east Asia, New York, June 24-26, 1969, p. 53. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 501 trying once again in the more propitious cir- and inputs in some twenty-one selected areas cumstances of the 1970s, especially when the of some 12,000 acres each. For each of the areas number of the rural poor is so great and likely RsIO million has been allotted for the plan to grow and when they have the capacity to period. In all, anticipated expenditures in the produce. For reasons stated elsewhere, the plan period for former and recent programs fruition of most of the programs lies in the make up the not inconsiderable sum of Rs3,800 future; but it is encouraging that the govern- million.17 ment has been diverting funds for schemes There is ample scope for expansion of the which directly relate to the improvement of rural works just outlined. This doesn't imply levels of living of the poor. that, even if greatly expanded, they would con- These programs have been operated under stitute a sufficiently comprehensive program such titles "Rural Works Program" (RWP), for overcoming rural poverty in India. Nor are "Small Farmers Development Agency" (SFDA), they viewed that way by the government and "Marginal Farmers and Landless Laborers of India. While the programs are an entity in Scheme" (MFAL). The RWP has concentrated themselves, their success cannot be divorced on fifty-four drought-prone areas. The govern- from an "integrated program" which stands for ment of India provides Rs20 million to each a package of agrarian reforms, consolidation of area for four years to finance roads, irrigation, holdings, effective rural credit for all sectors of and soil conservation. Where the work benefits the rural economy, research, and the widening individual farmers, they are granted a subsidy of the scope of the new technology. Neverthe- of 25 percent and a loan for the remainder of less, the problems of rural poverty are so ur- the costs of the work done. The SFDA and gent and the immediate need to earn a wage MFAL programs are essentially agricultural or improve the productive facilities of the credit schemes. The former was discussed in small farmers is so great that the importance detail in last year's report. The two agencies of the programs by themselves cannot be gain- involved use their funds to provide risk subsi- said. Besides, these essentially pilot projects, if dies to the cooperative credit institutions and successful, could be the forerunners of a much other financing institutions. They also assist wider scope of similar activities, the sum total small and marginal farmers by granting subsi- of which could just possibly make a dent in the dies up to 25 percent and 33.3 percent of the poverty line where they are carried out suc- investments for which they borrow. In addition cessfully. to finance, these organizations may perform a With respect to the plan's twenty-four dry variety of services for the betterment of their farming projects at a total anticipated expendi- clients. ture of Rs200 million, an outlay of Rs20 million The programs initiated in the past year are was provided in 1970-71 but the expenditure the "Crash Scheme for Rural Employment" (CSRE) and the "Dry Farming Scheme" (DFS). Under the first one the union government allots 17. With no reference to the overall figure or Rsl,250,000 annually to each of 350 districts parts of the same mentioned in the preceding para- to finance durable and productive labor inten- graphs, the following is from the new budget: "the sive rural projects such as village roads and budgetary provision for the small farmers develop- ment agency is being doubled from Rs60 million to minor irrigation. About 80 percent of the cost Rsl20 million next year and for marginal farmers is to be spent on wages, providing employment and agricultural laborers from Rs30 million to Rs60 for 1,000 workers at a daily wage of Rs3 and million. Programmes for dry farming development, not more than RsOO a month for an average rural works in drought-prone areas and the crash programme for rural employment are being con- employment of ten months in the year. Local tinued with a total provision next year of Rs720 bodies participate in the selection of projects million. It is our hope that in the light of the experi- which are subject to approval in New Delhi. ence already gained and the assessments recently The Dry Farming Scheme (integrated dry land made in consultation with the State Governments, it agricultural development scheme) is a pilot would be possible ncxt year to utilize in full the provision that is now being made." As of now, the and demonstration program designed to test crux of the matter is the proper utilization of the the application of the latest research findings funds rather than the quantum of funds available. 502 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 actually incurred was only Rs4.5 million." The was only Rs3O million."' Thus the real work of "Mid-Term Appraisal's" comment is that "this implementation on the ground is expected to program . . . has not made adequate headway be taken in hand during 1971-72." In the case so far." This is not surprising, mainly because of MFAL and the Rs475 million allocated, the of the newness of the scheme. Since the be- expenditure up to the end of the year 1970-71- ginning of the drought-prone area programs was only Rs1O million.21 According to the (1971-72), an expenditure of nearly Rsl80 "Mid-Term Appraisal," "It is obvious that, even million has been incurred out of a contern- more than the programme of small and poten- plated total outlay of Rsl.25 billion through tially viable farmers, the programme of mar- 1973-74. Minor irrigation and soil conserva- ginal farmers and agricultural labor will require tion are the principal ingredients of the scheme. a significant acceleration in the remaining Plan The actual implementation of the crash scheme period if the program is to utilize the Plan for rural employment (CSRF) started only in provisions and to have requisite impact in October 1971, but expenditures incurred al- terms of the objectives that were visualized." ready amount to Rs400 million. At this rate of The reasons for the delays are problems expenditure the intended Rs1 billion through such as these: the elapsed time for sanctioning 1973-74 might fall short of requirements. The a project, time lag between sanctioning a proj- labor component is expected to account for 70 ect and staffing it, failure of some of the states percent of the expenditures. Field trip observa- to provide their share of expenditure, and the tions of the operations of a couple of these pro- most crucial of all handicaps is the "stagnant grams by a World Bank mission in late 1971 or inadequate" flow of institutional credit to are encouraging. Expenditures for these pro- small farmers. This particular problem con- tinues unabated. The official comment is that grams are an important measure of progress, tne probe of .oi ent i pro- but their durability is just as important and .,h prbe ofr-retn.olaigpo buty te abilt isfus as ot cedures and policies in favor of the less privi- onlyhme an thoell tleged . . . is proving doubly difficult." Added schemes as a whole... . to this is the fact that "the commercial banks More or less the same applies to the earlier have not generally been able to do much in programs such as the Small Farmers Develop- several SFDA areas." A smooth flow of credit is ment Agency (SFDA) and the Marginal Farm- the very essence of the successful implementa- ers and Landless Laborers Scheme (MFAL). tion of these programs, and it is understandable Statistically speaking, a good deal has been why "in the remaining period of the Plan one done. More than a million small farmers and of the principal tasks is to re-examine some of over half a million marginal farmers have been the assumptions behind the SFDA programme identified; Rsl04 million have been advanced with regard to institutional credit and take to them as short-, medium-, and long-term such measures as will help increase the flow of loans; and they had been able to take up 16,500 credit into the hands of small farmers."22 minor irrigation works and a sizable number The "Mid-Term Appraisal" reflects the con- of livestock and poultry projects. Yet they are tent of official project reviews of SFDA pro- meeting with difficulties. The "Fourth Plan grams. The total number of such reviews being Mid-Term Appraisal""' sheds considerable light only three, it need not be presumed that they on the current status. Briefly, the situation is are typical of all programs. With this caveat it something like this. The intended forty-six is nevertheless of interest to summarize the projects of SFDA with a total provision of Rs675 findings of the most recent review of one pro- million are finally in operation, but "the ex- gram carried out in late 1971. Its major con- penditure during the first two years of the Plan 20. According to a more recent paper prepared by the Planning Commission, funds released for the 18. Government of India, "Economic Survey, SFDA as of late February 1972 were Rs-?4 million 1971-72," p. 23. and for the MFAL, Rs38 million. 19. Government of India, Planning Commission 21. Planning Commission, (December 1971). 22. Ibid. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 503 clusion is that for reasons of physical, financial, competence," and many of the records had no and operational constraints, by the end of basis in fact. Big farmers divided up their land 1973-74 only 10,000 farmers, or 20 percent of in order to fall within the category of "small those identified as small farmers, are likely to farmer"; farmers with holdings in other vil- achieve viability through the SFDA. The re- lages have not been identified and some few maining 40,000 may succeed in increasing with incomes way above the average also suc- their incomes if the SFDA succeeds in providing ceeded in claiming small farmer status. Above them with productive credit under adequate all, many tenants were excluded altogether be- supervision, but "viability," as distinguished cause of the prevalence of oral leases and hence from "increased" income, will not be within the inability to prove the obvious-their status their reach. The reasons for this anticipated as tenants-and credit eligibility. Additionally, outcome are many, but the two principal ones the agency had not drawn a distinction between are the poor state of the institutional credit fa- irrigated and unirrigated land, it is quite likely cilities and the problems of identifying the that it has enrolled a sizable number of farmers small farmers. Without going into details, all who are already viable. The findings conclude cooperative credit-serving institutions, from that "the mechanical application of the param- the central cooperative bank down to the pri- eters in terms of size of holdings, without mary cooperative societies, are in a bad financial reference to income, is a serious limitation in way in the district where this particular pro- the procedure adopted by the agency. gram of the SFDA is in operation. About 80 The reported situation in Nalganda district percent of the cooperatives are in the "C" and of Andhra Pradesh is much better. The account 17 percent in the "D" class, the two lowest per- is incomplete, but it would seem that in the formance categories. About 80 percent of the matter of selecting likely candidates for the societies are in default to the central coopera- SEDA and the MFAL, much greater care has tive bank, whereas the owned funds and de- been exercised, particularly from the point of posits of the latter were almost totally locked view of good credit use and its timely repay- up in overdues. As of the date of the investiga- ment. What else the agency of this district has tion, the credit furnished by the commercial done or not done is still a subject for investi- banks has been negligible; but in effect they gation. "But Nalganda," the author of the arti- are expected to meet at least one-third of the cle writes, "is only one of the 90-odd districts total financial needs of these farmers. Minor covered by these programs. In most of the irrigation is the main accelerator of any SFDA others no comparable effort has been made."21 program, followed by the adoption of modern One final point relates to the state of minor farm technology and the use of improved irrigation. It had not received the attention it inputs. Both are costly and both depend upon deserves from the agency and mainly from the the adequate and timely supply of credit, but credit institutions. A repetition of the same in "during 1970-71 the credit institutions were 1971-72 "might create serious problems for hardly prepared to discharge the task assigned the Agency at a later date when it finds that, in to them." the absence of adequate minor irrigation facili- A year and a half after the establishment of ties, the bulk of the small farmers, though the project, 12,000 farmers from 569 villages identified and otherwise assisted, have not at- had been identified; the process of identifying tained viability. In other words, the basic ob- all of the 50,000 is expected to be completed jectives of the SFDA scheme would get de- by the end of 1973-74. "Who is who" is of feated." Even with remedies suggested in a prime importance, for it forms the basis for number of directions, the difficulties revealed extending the benefits and determines a farmer's in getting under way cannot be eradicated with eligibility for different forms of assistance. But great dispatch. It is clear from the foregoing the task of identification is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. The preparatory work based on "farm production plans" from revenue 23. Ashok Thapar, "The Neglected Small records and personal inquiries by village-level Farmer-What Can Be Done to Help Him," Times workers proved to be deficient "in requisite of India (March 20, 1972). 504 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 that the apprehension expressed in the Plan- Reverting to the schemes under discus- ning Commission's "Mid-Term Appraisal" sion, it may be pointed out that the problems about the present condition of the SFDA is encountered are to a large degree the end re- well founded. On the plus side is the fact that sults of something that goes beyond resources, in assessing the programs no attempt is made planning, preparation of projects, execution, to condone, overlook, or minimize the short- maintenance, and so on. These are all technical comings that have cropped up in the course of problems which can be overcome, provided it their operations. Effective remedial measures is recognized that the future of the schemes for the tenants will depend upon appropriate will be decided at the village level. And the legal measures at the state level; the question village level, or rather the arrangements under of credit and weak credit institutions repre- which "our" farmers live and work, is not easy sents an equally serious problem which only to contend with from the point of view of time, skill, and ample funds can correct. The vigorous prosecution of the schemes. The ques- recommendations of the National Agricultural tion of credit is a case in point. Its flow in their Commission (see Cooperative Credit) and direction is "stagnant or inadequate," not al- their implementation could be the right shot ways because the credit cooperative till is ex- in the arm. Finally, despite the problems which hausted but also because the "other" farmers beset all the programs, there can be no turning who run village affairs can intrude into the back; they do represent areas of great promise schemes not meant for them to the detriment aimed at the right things by attempting to of those for whom they are intended. What build employment, better standards of living, credit they do get is not necessarily related to and social justice into economic growth. their needs or their entitlement under the Apart from all the programs already de- schemes but often to what the others decide scribed, the recommendations of the Bhagvati they should or shouldn't get. There are other Committee on Unemployment should be noted interferences between material inputs and out- here.' The report of the committee issued on puts which only most special care can neu- February 11 of this year urges an additional tralize. This is illustrated by one of the most Rs7,400 million in the fourth plan to support perceptive examinations of a variety of small a crash program to create four million new farmer schemes undertaken in Maharashtra be- jobs over the next two years. The new funds, fore SFDA came officially into being. Says the if available, are to step up the allocations for author of the study: such familiar projects as rural electrification, road building, minor irrigation, education, rural This class of citizens enjoys little or no eco- water supply, and so forth, and for the inclu- nomic and social status in the village com- sion of a new Rs2,300 million rural housing munity. He is never approached by any of program in the fourth plan. The raising of the extension agents. Most of the time he such large funds and the ways and means of works on the land of the rich and influen- utilizing them present serious problems of tial farmers. Often he is unemployed most their own, the more so in this case because the of the time in the year. In any meeting in report has little to offer financially or organiza- the village either he is not seen or is seen tionally by way of mounting an effort of this generally sitting at the fringe of the group. magnitude in so brief a time span. The best This is the micro-unit that must not be lost that can be said at the moment is that the com- sight of. Unless this micro-unit is correctly mittee's recommendations reassert the urgency identified and most appropriate plans for its of providing jobs for the unemployed or un- development are prepared the entire efforts deremployed in the shortest possible time with of the agency would be fruitless.25 the rural areas as the main focus. 25. V. R. Gaikwad, Small Farmers: State Policy 24. Government of India, Committee on Unem- and Programme Implementation (Hyderabad: Na- ployment, "Interim Report on Short-Term Measures tional Institute of Community Development, 1971), for Employment" (February 1972). p. 64. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 505 The author of the quoted statement is not cooperatives are assuming a greater role as denigrating the numerous schemes currently procurement agents of the Food Corporation, sponsored by the government but uses his find- their turnover is bound to rise accordingly. On ings as a warning against the oversimplification the qualitative operational side of the coopera- of what goes into the making of a successful rives, there is the elimination of 6,000 non- project. Precisely because so much is at stake viable cooperative societies, reducing them to due to the ongoing process of polarization be- a total of 162,000. Reorganization of the co- tween rural rich and the rural poor, the power operatives with an eye of greater efficiency is exercised by the privileged "gatekeepers" of the reported from a number of states. Punjab and village community must be watered down by Haryana expect to convert most of the existing challenging that power through economic op- societies into viable units by the end of the portunities made available to the underprivi- plan. In addition to cooperative credit, the con- leged in the form of the programs discussed tribution of the commercial banks has increased here. But the lessons of the past failures must sharply from Rs*[.84 billion in June 1970 to be kept in the forefront because the programs Rs2.4 billion in June 1971. Clearly, in a very deal with the weaker sections of the rural popu- short time the banks have become a major lation with very special political, legal, tech- force in rural credit. As regards long-term nical, and administrative problems that their credit, the Land Development Banks have made condition implies. Nothing said here is an argu- significant progress. Between 1960-61 and ment against the programs. Not to venture is 1968-69, the loans advanced by these banks to to admit defeat, a condition that cannot be agriculture increased from Rsl20 million to contemplated even in the face of fear of failure. Rs1.48 billion, and in 1969-70 the volume of Nor must one be discouraged by their slower new loans stood at Rs1.55 billion. As for the growth payoffs than the primarily growth- Agricultural Relinance Corporation with its oriented projects which have been common stress on minor irrigation, land improvement, thus far. But even if these schemes necessarily storage facilities, farm mechanization, and so involved some degree of "trade-off" between forth, it continued to make progress. Up to growth and economic and social development 1968-69 ARC had sanctioned 233 schemes in- broadly conceived, there can be little doubt that volving financial assistance of Rsl.82 billion, economic growth thus achieved would be more of which it committed Rsl.56 billion. As of lasting and, in human terms, more desirable. August 31, 1971, the corporation had 489 schemes with a total outlay of Rs3.14 billion, including its ow:n commitment of Rs2.7 billion. Cooperative Credit Strength and weakness The statistical picture These statistical bare bones speak of continu- ous quantitative expansion of rural credit and Demand for institutional credit continues to of qualitative improvement as well, or attempts grow and loans to farmers have been on the in that direction. To this may be added what increase. Firm figures for 1970-71 are not has already been remarked on previous occa- available, but in 1969-70 cooperative disburse- sions, namely, that there are many well- ments of short- and medium-term loans performing societies and that importance of amounted to Rs5.4 billion or Rs380 million the cooperatives in providing 30 percent of the more than in the preceding year. Since by the rural credit at a low cost cannot be overesti- end of the plan (1973-74) the target is Rs7.5 mated. In doing this, they have helped to billion, its realization will call for additional rationalize distribution patterns, increase pur- mobilization of considerable resources. On the chasing power, and improve standards of liv- noncredit activity side sales of farm inputs, ing; and they have certainly contributed to distribution of consumer goods, and marketing modernization of agriculture. In a word, mil- of agricultural produce-the cooperatives have lions of farmer have benefited from them and not done badly either. Now that marketing rural India without this landmark is hard to 506 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 visualize. On the other side of the ledger, and loan, but has undertaken some other activity a very important side at that, are the shortcom- during the year . . . We have reason to be- ings which are growing in scope as the volume lieve that several of the societies which have of credit keeps on expanding. The same source been classified as active or non-dormant have of information which shows the numerical in fact been doing only token business and progress of the cooperatives tells a less cheerful cannot be really considered 'active'."27 It may story about the quality of a good deal of their be presumed that a goodly number of societies performance. This is not new nor is it new in the D and E categories are ready for the that they have not been improving with age. mortuary. Although the total membership is Problems of "revitalization" are decades old, close to 30 million, only 39 percent are bor- and the reports and recommendations to that rowers, while in the late 1950s the percentage effect have been standard fare for just as long. of borrowers was closer to 60. Not without Despite these efforts, in the year 1969-70 their significance is that the idea of thrift and say- problems are too great to be ignored. The Re- ings as an important factor in the promotional serve Bank of India, the mentor and perennial work of the cooperatives has fallen into disuse. financial prop of the cooperatives, notes the The emphasis is entirely on credit, relying for following: the greater part on borrowed funds to the ex- clusion of self-reliance, thereby limiting growth Although quantitatively there has been some of cooperativ'e credit. progress in the working of the societies, a great deal of effort is still required in the matter of revitalization of primary credit Overdues structure. Firstly, as against the total number of societies at 162,700 the number of dor- In the final analysis, an important test for judg- mant societies was 19,000 and these covered ing whether the credit system is working effi- 49,703 villages. Secondly, the number of ciently is whether loans are recovered on due societies working without profit or at a loss dates. This is a measure of the strength of was 49,910, i.e., about 30 percent of the the cooperatives as well as of the attitude of total. Thirdly, out of 150,636 societies the borrowers toward the cooperatives. It is audited during the year, only 22,094 societies the failure in recoveries that mainly accounts wr for the stagnation or recession in recent years were classified as A or B. As many as 128,542 in most states. In short, overdues have grown societies were classified as C, D or E.... and these constitute 85 percent of the so- apace along with the expansion of credit. Be- cieties audited (uring the year.-" tween 1960-61 and 1969-70 those of the pri- mary societies have gone up from 20 to 38 Since C, D, and E classifications denote percent; this in turn was reflected in the over- poorly operating coops, perhaps a better way dues to district and central cooperative banks of putting it is that only 15 percent of all co- which have risen from 12 to 29 percent. Ac- operatives meet the high standard of the Re- cording to the Planning Commission's "Mid- serve Bank. A comparison with similar data Term Appraisal," "in some states the position for 1962-63 shows that in that year the A and is very alarming indeed . . . there has been a B cooperatives numbered 33,000 as against steady deterioration over the last several years 22,000 in 1969-70. In line with this and other and the same trend was maintained during shortcomings-all of old standing-the num- 1969-70." The global percentage figures tell ber of dormant societies is probably consider- only part of the story. In Assam it is as high as ably larger than the official figure given. Ac- 82 percent, Orissa 63 percent, Kashmir 60 per- cording to the official definition, an active cent, and Bihar 50 percent; even in the most society can be one "which has issued even one prosperous of agricultural states, Punjab, over- dues are at 38 percent; and in that cradle of 26. Reserve Bank of India, "Credit Societies," Statistical Statements Relating to the Cooperative 27. Report of the All-India Rural Credit Review Movement of India. 1969-70, pp. iii-iv. Committee (1969), p. 169. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 507 cooperativism, Maharashtra, overdues are at for their own advantage. This is compounded 54 percent and as a single state it accounted by yet another reality that the cooperatives for one-fifth of the overdues incurred by all also "belong" to the government. Government the states. The "Mid-Term Appraisal" notes control and direction of the movement is a that "an even more disturbing picture is ob- historical legacy. Although many efforts have tained if these figures are disaggregated in been made since independence to strengthen terms of individual central cooperative banks." the nonofficial voluntary character of the move- Paradoxical, too, is the fact that the habitual ment, it is still prKmarily the Department of defaulters are not the smallest and poorest but Cooperation which iecides how funds are used, the biggest and richest borrowers. terms of membership, who are to be given loans Nonpayment is often a result of an "act of on what basis, in what amounts, and so forth. God," and it is inevitable in some circum- There may be gooc reasons for the tight gov- stances. It is not inevitable in a number of ernmental control; but in the eyes of many of states enjoying in the past five years unprece- their members the cooperatives are primarily dented prosperity. In such conditions non- instruments of the government, and the over- repayment is only a reflection of the inadequate dues are at least partly a reaction to this con- performance of the cooperatives. Added to this dition. is the apprehension of large numbers of mem- bers that due to poor recoveries from others, a society may not be able to give them a fresh loan. This in turn is one of the reasons for Credit distribution the failure to repay the loans promptly and All this is relevant to the fact that rural India causing overdues to mount. It weakened the has entered an era of agricultural development capacity of the cooperatives to advance fresh when the question of how institutional credit loans even to creditworthy farmer members, is distributed is of primary importance to mil- and this had resulted in relatively small num- lions upon millions of the poorer farmers. How bets of borrower members. much credit they get must be linked from now on with the major attempt of the government of India to raise their standard of living. The answer to the question just raised doesn't readily lend itself to precise statistical analysis, The membership of the cooperatives is as varied but enough information is available to conclude as the social and economic structure of the that credit is distributed in a manner that village and just as unequally represented. One favors the well-to-do as against the underprivi- finds in it rich and middle-class landowners, leged section of the village. proportionately fewer tenants, and still fewer In last year's report we quoted the Haryana agricultural laborers and artisans; nor is the Minister of Cooperation to this effect: "It is membership lacking in traders, rice millers, now a widely known and accepted fact that the moneylenders, and local politicians. On its face smaller cultivator:; and other weaker sections it is a mix of all the elements of the community, of the rural community have been totally ig- but obtaining any credit and the volume of nored in the field of cooperation." It is perhaps credit received are related to the lines of eco- an exaggeration to say that they are "totally nomic stratification. The wealthier groups take ignored," but they have not done well either in the fullest advantage of what the cooperatives sharing available credit. If the available data have to offer; they are the "insiders" and they roughly reflect the credit distribution pat- control the cooperatives. Whatever the idealized tern, a few conclusions may be drawn. Ac- notion of "cooperation," "village democracy," cording to the Reserve Bank, in 1969-70 and "egalitarianism," the fact is that the village tenant cultivators, agricultural laborers, and imposes its own pattern upon the cooperatives. "others" received credit amounting to Rs240 Part of this pattern is that the cooperatives do million, which is 4 to 6 percent of the total not belong to the mass of the membership but credit disbursed. Since the tenants alone culti- to powerful factions who use or abuse them vate an estimatei 15 to 20 percent of the 508 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 total acreage, their share is manifestly below a widening of the area over which the bene- what they might be entitled to under a more fit of credit is spread.28 equitable system of distribution. Assuming that Finally, "the small cultivators are indeed handi- they cultivate only 15 percent of the land or in having access to cooperative credit."2 50 million acres and that they received all of e the Rs240 million, the inference is that large Te anteri. Report nCd Sericestfr . Small and iMarginal Farmers and Agricultural numbers of them received no cooperative credit . . . . . . Laborers, prepared by the National Commission at all or very little of it. As for credit distribu- . p ( tion among the farmers in general, ample statis- .o itr (Decembe 1971) a.mmsrthe . above findings. The nationalized commercialI tical evidence is provided by the monumental bn . and uthoitaive epor ofthe ll-idia banks have done no better because "even their and authoritative Report of the All-India oprtnsecudthblkftesmlad Crdi ReiwCmitepbihdi. 99 operations excluded the bulk of the small and Credit Review Committee published mn 1969. fat afield to explain marginal farmers, as they also tended to fi- htwold t akommie too nance agriculture according to the prevailing how the committee arrived at its conclusions, crtei an. ehd. evno oera For this reason, a few quotations will have to c . . suffice. Thus: sons are cited to explain this state of affairs, which are in effect the strongest indictment of It doesn't, therefore, appear so much that the cooperative system on the grounds of poor Itdesn', erefultivor apear sotg m uc management; poor leadership; disregard of all the bigger cultivators are getting undue the principal recommendations of more equit- large loans in absolute terms as that a large able distribution of credit; credit monopoly en- proportion of the small cultivators get joyed by the "all and all" in the villages; either no cooperative credit atialltors divergence between accepted principles and inadequate credit that even elive terms practices as demonstrated, for example, by the they are wors e srve t h bigger culti- neglect of the crop loan system in favor of vators . . . the principle of open member- acreage held and land mortgage as security; the ship is not always effective and several co- araehl n admrgg sscrt- h shpratis noerawas effecvead sevea or thequestionable creditworthiness of the coopera- operatives operate as a closed shop for the tieth slv;antemuipctyoag- beneit o onepartculr ecnornc grup rtives themselves;, and the multiplicity of agen- benefit of one particular economic group or cistruhwihafamrms ekcei caste or faction. Secondly, the repaying ca- cistruhwihafrmr utsekrdt pct o tin secoly,vthe rein and put it to use (see attached on the flow of pacity of the small cultivator is called into credit) fomitted). While extolling the bene- question, and loans [are] often ruled out on fit the nsyte h e e e grhe how that ground. Thirdly, in the distribution of fit th ytr. a edrdrgrls o that und. Thirly, in .tt of credit is distributed, "the present structure of thealmtedunds avle,t it the small the organization has to be modified to give a farer wh. e etot.. h eat r better bias towards the small and marginal discriminated against and, irrespective of the farmers a taruta l aborers. rging crop raised by them and their acreage, their fagans and agricultural econom gring entitlement to credit is restricted to only up undth agiufthe ecnoly and Rs25 ortheeabot. nsitenc onthese- up under the aegis of the new technology and crit oforthereot. Inist n o tes- pleads for the incorporation of its underprivi- curity of mortgage of land, again, operates legedi part "within the compass of the upsurge against the provision of adequate short-term .ee par "wti th ops.f. h pug againt the prov s . Fiadequate shote of agricultural modernization." Hence the pro- credit to the tenants. Finally, in spite of the pslfranwcei ytm provision for appeal to the Registrar of Co- operative Societies, even membership-let alone credit-is being denied to cultivators Integrated agricultural credit service belonging to certain classes, factions or Both the Report of the All-India Rural Credit castes. All these have had the total effect of Review Committee and the Interim Report of restricting the access of the small cultivators to cooperative credit. The substantial expan- sion in cooperative credit witnessed in cer- ?8. Italics added. All the quotations are from p. s in 174 of the committee's report. tain areas, therefore, represents, in effect, 29. Ibid., p. 131. nore an increase in the amounts borrowed 30. Interim Report, pp. 13-14. by a limited number of members rather than 31. Ibid., p. 10. Agriculture-Issues and Programs 509 the National Commission on Agriculture have way of a preamble, the agricultural credit not limited themselves to a mere analysis of service will have the following constituent the present-day strength and weakness of the parts: cooperative credit system. In the first-mentioned 1. Farme-s' Service Societies-one fot each report the immediate and practical outcome .esil'block or any other viable unit of con- was the attempt to remove the anti-small v s w farmer bias by creating the Small Farmer De- v velopment Agency and focusing national atten- .requied in the a 'ea; tl 2. A union of these societies at the district tio an eforttocomat hisprole. Te level, and functional district organizations *fact that SFDA does not have smooth sailing for fctm aodit and only tends to underscore how deeply rooted cooperative malpractices have become with the 3. Lead Bank of the district assuming leader- passage of time. In the Interim Report and ship in the matter of otganizing integrated apart from advocating "mixed," specialized agricultural credit service." farming as the most promising pattern for In organizing the proposed framework, a num- small farming, the main stress is laid on the ber of consideraticns are kept in view. Apart creation of an Integrated Agricultural Credit from the injunct.on that no small farmer Service. "Considering," the report notes, "that should be debarred from membership in the there are over 20 million operational holdings cooperatives, the report stresses that: in the country with less than 2.5 acres, the gap Farmers will dcal with a single agency for in the coverage and the magnitude of the prob- thers tid ith a lnge credtt lem assume staggering proportions and point their short-, medium-, and long-term credit out the inadequacy of the present institutional requirements as well as their demands for in- system in ushering in the structural changes puts and services. That agency should be necessary to bring the small farmers as sharers their own organization, viz., Farmers' Ser- of benefits that accrue from agricultural vice Society. growth."12 More specifically, one of the prin- 2. The Lead Bank will assume the responsi- cipal recommendations is to do away with the bility for integrating credit with supply of multiplicity of credit agencies so that the bor- inputs and services. rower will have only one contact point for ob- 3. The Farmers' Service Societies will be re- taining his credit and input requirements. sponsible for organizing, on commercial Equally important is to make certain that the lines, the supply of inputs and services, farmers in question who cultivate nearly one- either directly or under contract arrange- fifth of the land should get "at least 40 percent ments with other public agencies or private of the total agricultural credit."" To a degree, firms. this tilt in allocations is based on the proposi- Additionally, a Farmers' Service Society is tion that many of the big farmers are capable expected to assume a variety of functions, eight of financing their requirements from their own in number, indeed turning it into a multipur- resources. Special attention is to be paid to the pose cooperative, talked about in the past but cooperatives in the eighty-eight districts where never tried. As an aid to this and not only the SFDA and MFAL programs are being im- with an eye to employing a full-time paid plemented to ensure that they are immediately managerial and technical staff to support the reorganized into strong units capable of ca- operations, the basic cooperative law is to be nalizing credit to the farmers in the selected amended in a number of ways. But what comes areas, through in everything pertaining to the pro- How this is to be accomplished is presented posed integrated agricultural credit service is in considerable detail but it need not be re- the theme that the credit and other services to peated here, except for a few main points. By the small farmers, whether members of SFDA 32. Ibid., p. 20. 34. Ibid., p. 26. 33. Ibid. 35. Ibid., pp. 26 and 28. 510 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 or MFAL or not, must be given top priority. The farmers should apply to the cooperatives in Reserve Bank and a great many committees general. Decades-old way of lending and the and commissions have dealt with this prob- inimical pressures upon the cooperative sys- lem, but the Interim Report discussed here tem cannot be cured very quickly by multipur- takes the Report of the All-India Rural Credit pose credit societies, but the advantages of a Review Committee a step further by restating version of a supermarket credit scheme to the and prescribing for the needs of all farmers borrower-whether big or small-are obvious. who for a variety of reasons have least bene- Apart from the benefits of shopping under one fited from the cooperative system. One of the roof, the cooperatives could exert better con- suggestions is to keep out bigger farmers, the trol over lending, utilization, and recovery of reasons being that (a) "they would exploit loans. The difficulties of a major shift of this the small farmers" and (b) "that with the ex- kind, particularly considering the vested inter- pansion of commercial banking into rural areas, est entrenched in all the constituent parts of this class of entrepreneurs can have access to the country's institutional credit operations, is bank credit." The scheme concentrates an insti- recognized. At the same time, there is con- tutional credit arrangement for the small farm- siderable disenchantment with the gradual ac- ers and evidently assumes that the existing co- cumulation of lending agencies, each one hav- operative systems will go on with or without ing been created to meet this or that problem improvements. This presupposes a dual co- the primary societies couldn't resolve. To the operative system, although the report makes concerned cooperators who have been watching no reference to it. the expansion of credit along with the expan- sion of problems, the primary societies and district and central cooperative banks as they are now have outlined their usefulness. In their Comment view, therefore, the multipurpose idea has much Credit cooperatives have functioned primarily relevance for a new deal in cooperative credit as moneylending institutions, and their interest if overdues, the political character of many of in the overall economic activity of their mem- the cooperatives, and the role of the wealthy bers has been peripheral. In the case of the clientele in shaping them are to be dealt with small farmers, even availability of credit more effectively. For all of these reasons at wouldn't be altogether crucial without provid- some point soon, the argument runs, the exist- ing them at the same time with many other ing system must undergo a drastic change if it services. It is recognized, therefore, that credit is to serve well the needs of a changing agri- cannot stand by itself but should represent such cultural economy. other areas of activities which make up the The real question is whether this scheme essentials of farmers' needs. This recognition will succeed this time whereas somewhat simi- is, in fact, the rationale of the multipurpose lar proposals by the Reserve Bank of India societies or what the Interim Report terms and other involved bodies have never quite "integrated agricultural credit service." The reached the trial stage of significance. Consid- idea is not a new one; the lasting benefits to ering the endless array of recommendations to the farmers of this type of societies have been improve the work of the cooperatives which stressed for nearly two decades past, but only went unheeded over the years, one may be a few sugar cane cooperatives have practiced tempted to dismiss the new attempts as just it. If such cooperatives can be created and the another paper proposition. To take that posi- poorer farmers provided with a single contact tion is to assume that no improvement in the point for obtaining credit, inputs, and assis- cooperative system can be contemplated and, tance in processing and marketing their prod- more particularly, that the Small Farmers De- ucts, it would signal a major change in the co- velopment Agency programs are likely to fail operative movement. It would demonstrate for for want of "integrated credit." Viewed opti- the first time a close linkage between means mistically, the new schemes will be tried on a and ends. pilot basis to begin with, and the chances are The credit medicine prescribed for the small that through trial and error innovations will Agriculture-Issues and Programs 511 be introduced. There is no inherent reason why exceeded depending upon soil and climatic the cooperatives so dependent upon govern- conditions; (d) existing exemptions in favor ment assistance couldn't, for instance, insure of mechanized farms, well-managed farms in that all the small farmers are eligible for mem- general, and so forth should be withdrawn; oership, that credit be based on crop production finally, (e) exemptions in favor of plantation rather than on security of land, that it is linked crops shall be re-examined in consultation with with marketing, that inputs are provided, and ministries concerned and state governments. that the cooperatives are there to serve the The recommendations make no reference to overall needs of agricultural advancement and compensation, but the Minister of State for vetter standards of living. And as for the small Agriculture informed the Parliament that he farmers, so for the generality of farmers. For all favored "reasonable" compensation but not the too long these basics have been regarded as un- market value of the surplus land. This is not realizable tall orders. This time around one likes surprising in the light of past treatment of to think that they will prove more manage- surplus land and constitutional amendments re- able-if the recommendations of the Interim lating to land pricing under the reforms. From Report are not to be another exercise in fu- the point of view of the promoters of the new tility and the interests of the farmers in ques- scheme, it is an improvement over the existing tion are to be secured. But for the reasons one on two counts: the maximization of sur- touched upon, there is more at stake than plus acreage for distribution and its application credit for the small farmers. Left to its present on a family basis only. The latter is intended devices, even many of the beneficiaries of the to eliminate illegal transfers to all and sundry, system run the risk of ultimately being choked thus helping ceiling goals as has been the case off from a ready source of credit. until now. On the face oi it, if the primary aim of land reform is the narrowing of rural income in- equalities and the easing of rural tensions, the Ceilings on Land Ownership new proposals are a step in the right direction. On the other hand. the results of ceiling legisla- The past year left the unfinished business of tion in the past decade and more and the agrarian reforms where it has been in the years political realities si:ill extant argue against opti- past-in the long drawer. But one issue, ceil- mistic expectations. It cannot be excluded, ings on land ownership, or the acreage an therefore, that the considerable effort invested owner can retain, came in for a good deal of in formulating the new approach and inducing public discussion. It is this that constitutes the the states to formally scrap the old legislation subject of the following paragraphs. and enact appropriate new legislation will not attain the stated objectives. This does not deni- grate the issue involved, which is serious enough. Yet too great a priority is attached to New ceiling approach land ceilings in the absence of a similar con- On August 3, 1971, the Central Land Reforms cern about reform measures of immediately Committee announced new guidelines for re- more vital promise such as a record of tenurial ducing the acreage an owner may keep. Their rights, security of tenure, and reasonable rentals. purpose is to widen the scope of land redis- These constitute :he "minimum program" dis- tribution among the tenants, sharecroppers, and cussed in detail in the World Bank's last year's the landless. The guidelines to effect this are annual report. It is this consideration that leads as follows: (a) nationwide, no owner can keep to the conclusion that, presently, land ceilings more than 10 to 18 acres of irrigated, double- as a part of land reform in India, while neces- cropped land or 54 acres of dry land; (b) the sary, appear as something less than a fruitful permissible ceiling must apply to the family preoccupation. This is particularly so if past as a unit rather than as in the past, in most experience with the attempts to enforce the states, to individual members of the family; ceiling provisions is anything like a prelude to (c) these limits, especially on dry land, can be the future. 512 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Ceiling program in retrospect enactments, holdings had been fictitiously At least in theory, ceiling legislation covered divided tp among close and distant relations the entire country. The permissible retentions as to make them appear mider the ceiling, while many owners did not bother even with were most genetous regardless how and to sT rcuinr esrs akn ig . such precautionary measures, Lacking a single, whom they applied. In Gujarat, for example, punitive clause in the entire mass of legisla- the retention varied from 19 acres of irrigated non-with the exception of the ineffective one land to 132 acres of other types of land, per in Maharashtra-there was no reason why they family; in Mysore from 27 to 216; and even should have. It made no difference whether the in Kerala, with small holders predominating, ceiling applied on an individual or family basis; the range was between 12 and 15 acres. The- e r. there was no concern about the bona fides of same repeated itself in states where the ceiling r. owners subject to ceilings or for that mar- applied on individual basis. In Bihar, for ex- ter administrative arrangements worth men- ample, each member of a family was permitted tioning. Enforcement was nor a problem; there to hold from 20 to 60 acres; in Andhra Pradesh . was little to enforce. In sum, while officially from 27 to 324 and, where a household ex- and in principle the states accepted the ceil- ceeded five members, additional land was al- ings programs, they rejected them in practice- lowed at the rate of 6 to 72 acres per member. and with results one might have expected. And so it went from state to state. Permissible retentions of this magnitude were in themselves a deterrent to the program's Can a new program succeed? success. This was compounded by legal and illegal land transfers both in anticipation and This experience raises a fundamental question: after the enactment of the ceiling laws. On top Are new ceilings necessary? Lack of space for- of that were numerous exemptions, of which bids even a summary of the pros and cons of Tamil Nadu could boast of as many as 26, Uttar the ceiling controversy, but our answer is in Pradesh 20, Madhya Pradesh 19, Maharashrra the affirmative. India's poor record to date is 11, and fewer exemptions in other states. It is no proof that the ceiling idea is too fanciful to not surprising that there was little land to dis- be useful. A glance at the country's agricul- tribute. The outstanding exception is Kashmir tural structure, with its inequalities and multi- where special political circumstances created a audes pressing on the land on the one hand situation where the declared surplus land and the narrow industrial base on the other, (180,000 acres) was actually distributed. Not reveals conditions in which any ownership of so in other states. Between the early 1960s and land or for a tenant to remain undisturbed on the end of 1970, the states of Bihar, Mysore, the land are minimum securities the under- Kerala, and Orissa have nor contributed a privileged can hope for. This, apart from single acre of surplus land. In all of Andhra ideology, is the principal economic justification Pradesh only 1,400 acres have been taken over of the ceiling. The question, therefore, is not -and none distributed. The big state of Tamil whether a ceiling program is necessary but Nadu contributed so little of declared and dis- whether, in the experience of the past decade, tributed surplus that its performance is only it can be carried out. trboe supu htispromnei ny In the light of the same experience, what is marginally less than that of the noncontributors. tr the in the ure epiu e, hat u there, then, mn the current picture that would Summing it up for India as a whole, by the end b onducive to a of 1970 the "declared surplus" right about-face as suggested by the Central Land Reforms Committee, with million acres and "area distributed" just half permissible retentions made more restrictive of that, or 0.3 percent of the total cultivated and exemptions eliminated? Little encouraging land of India. to speak of, even though in recent months Looking back and in relation of any new ceilings have been reduced in Assam, Bihar, attempt to reduce the permissible ceiling, it Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Not must be kept in mind that the entire ceiling until these measures are implemented is there episode was one of evasion by commission any reason to assume that this is in earnest. and omission. With deliberately poorly drawn Moreover, developments of a familiar sort tell Agriculture-Issues and Programs 513 a different story. In early 1970 on a visit in of impairing the position of the big owners in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the "taluka" offices were the new technology. Apart from all these con- overworked selling stamps for registering new siderations, the new stress on ceilings could land deeds or fictitious sales in the wake of very well he at the expense of the more ini- rumors that the ceilings might be lowered. mediately promising concentration on the More recent events in Maharashtra tell the minimum program of recorded rights of ten- same story. None of this is surprising. It is part ants or sharecroppers, security of tenure or of a well-established custom, and the likelihood their rights to remiin on the land undisturbed, is that there are probably almost as many simi- fair land rentals, nonexploitative farm wages, lar Maharashtras as there are states-an excep- the enlarged scope of land consolidation, and tion or two notwithstanding. A positive ac- a further expansion of the Green Revolution ceptance of any new ceiling program would into environmentally more deficient areas. call for the abrogation of all the so-called legal Admittedly, the obstacles that stand in the and illegal land transfers and the acknowledge- way of a ceiling program apply also to the still ments on the part of the state legislatures and unresolved tenurial. measures. The latter, how- administrators at all levels that for most parts ever, do not carry the same "bite" the former does the ceiling programs were essentially make- and are much more feasible for implementation. believe affairs. Under whatever other guise Additionally, enough was said in last year's this may be dressed up, it is highly question- World Bank report why this "minimum" de- able that as of now or in the immediate future serves top priority and it need not be repeated ceiling programs of the kind recently proposed here. If the state political decisionmakers are can be enforced-even if the appropriate legis- serious about it, they should take to heart lation is enacted. Prime Minister Gandhi's injunction that "it is time to face the facts." This is the understand- Conclusion ing that there is rio contradiction between the steady progress cf the new technology and For reasons stated, a ceiling program is essen- those elementary and persistently denied rights tial. Any meaningful reform without it is a of the underprivileged peasantry. This holds misnomer, while its effective implementation is good in a country like India in quest for more one of the main reasons of the few reforms in production, more equitable distribution of farm Asia which have succeeded. But considering the income, and rural stability. But the only rea- past history of this measure and its future pros- son we underplay the land redistribution ques- pects, major emphasis on ceilings now is not tion at the moment is that the climate might warranted. This is in line with the numerous not yield positive results within a relatively problems obstructing its implementation, the short time. And it is for this very reason that recognition that what has been so thoroughly preoccupation with it now might also detract scrambled up with impunity cannot be un- from, if not smother altogether, the effort to scrambled, the unwillingness of state legisla- get on with the long overdue minimum pro- tures to get on with the unfinished business of gram. agrarian reforms in general, and the possibility * * * 514 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 58. Drought in Maharashtra: Not in a Hundred Years This was Ladejinsky's report to the Bank dated January 12, 1973, on the devastating effects of the drought in Maharashtra. The dramatic subtitle makes further introduction unnecessary. This paper was subsequently published by the Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay, February 17, 1973, under the same title. Introduction dented dimensions, especially if one is to as- sume that for Maharashtra one hundred years IN THE ANNALS of Indian agriculture, 1972 is a sufficient span of time within which to will be remembered as another "Year of the judge a crop failure as precedented or unprece- Drought." In view of Bengal in 1943, it is by dented. And there is one more thing to note. far not the worst recorded, yet it is bad enough This is an occasion when the writer intends to in large areas of the country to create land- keep his emotions in leash. He labors under marks of misery all of their own. Varying in the impression that a "bleeding heart's credi- degree of intensity, there are Maharashtra; bility may suffer from dramatizing the incon- Andhra Pradesh; Gujarat; Rajasthan; and large trovertible cruelty of nature-no rain and no pockets of Mysore, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, crops; individual tragedies galore; short rations and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Countrywide, the and no little starvation; a multitude of farmers final summing up of the visitations that drought seemingly without a hope in the world; a good brings in its wake upon stricken states, includ- deal of listlessly wandering skin and bone that ing the lucky escapees, must be left to the may be termed livestock by courtesy only; and future historian. At the same time, something a horizon which upon closer examination is must be said about its scope and aftermath be- essentially a wasteland, exceptions notwith- fore the drought becomes just another episode standing. It is best, therefore, not to play on in the long chain of similar episodes. the heartstrings of the reader. Instead, the facts Looking at the afflicted states as a whole, and figures will speak for themselves. Gathered Maharashtra may claim the dubious honor of on the fly, so to speak, or from hastily com- being the worst-affected state. The drought piled documents, some of them may be dis- there "is in the center of the piece," as Nehru puted. However, whether overestimated or was fond of saying, referring, to be sure, to an underestimated, they do reflect the overall di- altogether different matter. Particularly in the mension of the drought calamity. With these past two months reams of copy have been de- caveats out of the way, we shall begin with the voted to its crop failure, painting it as the principal consequences of the drought as it worst in a hundred years. In the circumstances affected the Maharashtra state as a whole and there was nothing to do but visit some of the then proceed with the main object of these affected areas. This we did in late November observations: drought conditions in the Poona, to early December, and what follows is an ac- Sholapur, and Ahmednagar districts. count of conditions observed and of discussions with farmers and local officials involved in the Maharashtra State disaster. And let it be stated at the outset that, while officially the situation is still called one of The reason the Maharashtra drought is so "scarcity," in reality it is a disaster of unprece- much in the limelight is not only because of its Drought in Maharashtra 515 extreme severity but because it is the third in 73 tell the story o: the persistence of this sub- succession. The remarkable thing is how rela- normality and its consequences. According to tively little had been made of the first two; official estimates, out of a total of some 35,000 not less significant is that the lessons of the villages, 23,000 villages in twenty-one districts preceding years have not been fully taken to (out of a total of twenty-six districts) in 1970- heart. This apart, historically the struggle of 71 and 15,000 villages in twenty districts in the Maharashtra farmer has been one of a quest 1971-72 were affected by water scarcity. The for water. Nature has been stingy in providing current year is apparently the "banner" year; him with a sufficiency of rainfall, and neither officially, twenty-five districts are facing or did it help him in many of the operations likely to face crop failures in larger and smaller reaching out for this indispensable resource. degree. The number of villages involved is not Not only has it deprived him of adequate rain- yet known, but it would exceed that of 1970- fall; for the greater part it has also put a layer 71. Statewide, the numbers of people subject of hard rock between him and an undependable to the drought in one way or another during subterranean flow. This helps to explain to a the mentioned years are officially estimated at large degree why the rate of irrigation in Maha- 19, 12, and 20 million, respectively, out of a rashtra is the second lowest in India and partly total rural population of 35 million. These fig- why the irrigated area during the past decade ures, as well as the number of affected districts, has risen only marginally-from 6.5 to 8.3 per- may well be on tEe high side, but even smaller cent. Regardless of the reasons, it is obvious magnitudes would not change the picture to that rural Maharashtra depends very largely on any significant degree. the monsoon for irrigation and, as we shall The explanation for this state of affairs, presently see, for drinking water as well. which may be somewhat exaggerated for Maha- The year 1960-61 was the best recorded rashtra state as a whole, lies above all in the crop year; but between then and 1970-71 a poor monsoon, or regionally in its almost total number of relatively minor droughts has re- failure, on the eve of planting the kharif (sum- duced food production by a reported 14 percent mer) and rabi (winter) crops. In the Sholapur despite a rise in cultivated area, improved va- district, the rainfall between June and Novem- rieties, and other supporting measures. The ber was only 3 inches as compared with a corresponding increase in all-India foodgrain normal 20 inches. With variations similar sta- production was 35 percent. A similarly un- tistics can be cited for a number of other dis- happy position prevails in respect to most com- tricts. Sowing operations were held up in large mercial crops. Few irrigation facilities and the tracts of the state; and, in some places where monsoon playing truant so often are reflected sowing had been done, the seed was wasted. in the decline of farm income. The per capita Even the better water-protected rice areas of income of the state of Maharashtra at constant the state have not escaped all the ravages of prices, in the past decade, increased by 3 per- the drought. This is not to say that all crops cent compared with an average per capita in- failed-some survived well, some were badly come increase of 13 percent for all of India. damaged, while in the three districts mentioned In this growth, the primary sector (agriculture, earlier and with the exception of sugarcane animal husbandry, fisheries), employing 70 practically all other crops failed utterly. In the percent of the population, showed a decline light of all of this, the kharif crop, which in of 16 percent. This is not because the Maha- Maharashtra accounts for about two-thirds of rashtran farmer is conservative and indolent the total agricultural output, presents the fol- but because he is so largely dependent on the lowing picture: water gods who have been bypassing him these many years. Percent of normal In Maharashtra the subnormality of the Jowar 45 monsoon has become more a rule than an Groundnut 30 exception, and all measures to combat it have Bajra 20 been either insufficient or nonproductive for a Cotton 60 variety of reasons. The years 1970-71 to 1972- Rice 50 516 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 If these figures are not eventually revised up- quate food ration. This was attested to on all ward, in terms of money value the kharif pro- sides. Desertion of villages, of which there are duction this year is estimated at Rs315 crores not a few cases, is attributed to the first rather against a normal crop value of Rs574, or a fall than to the latter. A writer notes that even in of 46 percent. The total normal grain output normal years an estimated 12,000 villages must of the state is around 6.5 to 7 million tons; search for water within a radius of one mile provisionally, this year's anticipated output is or more. This year, the number of villages with put at about half of that. This is explained by an inadequate water supply is much larger. In the fact that the prospects of the rabi crop are the Gandhi Centenary Year (1971) the state equally bleak, since the anticipated rains either government had promised that the above- did not come or were below normal. Whatever mentioned 12,000 villages would be provided the size of the income generated in a non- with drinking water, but in fact only 15 per- drought year by the kharif and rabi crops, in- cent had been supplied so far.' To a lesser de- cluding animal husbandry, this year it cannot gree, urban centers have not escaped this prob- be expected to be much more than half of that. lem. In short, it is reported that in the greater The consequences are widespread, and we shall part of the state, surface water has dried up touch upon them in dealing with the three and that underground water can be reached districts. Suffice it to say here that one of the only through high-speed boring at 200 feet or consequences of the sharp decline in income is more. the suspension or remission of land revenue Cattle are in still greater jeopardy; they suf- taxes and the nonrecovery of loans by the coop- fer from serious shortages of both water and erative and banking institutions and government. fodder. But the stress here is on the latter, for One of the worst-hit districts is Sholapur; al- along with three successive crop failures, fodder though it is probably not representative of the has also come a cropper. Fodder prices are state as a whole, yet the recovery position to mounting far beyond the capacity of the farm- date is more than a straw in the wind. Thus, ers to sustain them, since the price of a bundle if we read the official statistics correctly, up to of fodder is four to six times higher than in the middle of 1972 less than one percent of a normal period. Above all, fodder is in very the land revenue was collected; of the irrigation short supply and is only marginally available assessments, 4.5 percent; of the education cess, in the worst drought areas. No wonder that in 2.7 percent. Recovery of the land bunding as- the affected regions no farmer buys cattle; all sessment is near zero, and the same is true of are trying to sell them to the slaughterhouses repayments on two special loans. On a field trip and this, as we shall point out later, for a song. in Sholapur, Poona, and Ahmednagar, it is Many cattle perish, and it is perhaps not a crystal clear that what is true of mid-1972 will great exaggeration to say that, of the 15 mil- be equally true at the end of the fiscal year lion livestock population in the badly hit areas, 1972-73. Allied with this is the obvious sharp about half are expected to perish of starvation rise in indebtedness, leading to a vicious circle or to be consigned to the slaughterhouses. An from which extrication is difficult, if not im- examination of this problem in the three dis- possible. tricts supports this contention. So much for the For Maharashtra as a whole, two other con- sketchy overall picture of drought-stricken sequences of the crop disaster must be men- Maharashtra. tioned at least by way of summary; they will be discussed at greater length as part of our The Three Districts observations in the districts. These are the shortage of drinking water and of fodder. The General impressions available figures for drinking water are any- Poona city, the first city on the way to the thing but precise and must be taken with cau- countryside, doesn't prepare one for the drought tion. Yet, however exaggerated they may be, they should be mentioned as an indication of 1. Pannalal Surana, "Who Cares About the the gravity of the situation. The lack of drink- Drought?" Economic and Political Weekly (No- ing water is more debilitating than is an inade- vember 18, 1972), p. 2269. Drought in Maharashtra 517 of Maharashtra as a whole or, for that matter, earlier do not apply to this region. During and for the calamitous conditions prevailing in the after the trip it has not been easy to assimilate greater part of Poona district and its two other the fact of fields turned to wasteland, which neighboring districts. On the contrary, the neither man nor beast can use to advantage. In- modern "Blue Diamond" hotel speaks of the numerable examples can be cited of the im- remarkable industrial upsurge in the past two mediate effect of the rainfall playing truant, decades within the periphery of the city. As but one of them will suffice. Here is an instance usual, the countryside and the city are worlds of a big owner of 70 acres of land, of which apart, although willy-nilly the economic dis- 20 are irrigated in a normal year. He has three tress in the rural areas is bound to affect- surface wells, two of which have been fitted and is already affecting-all kinds of traders with electric motcrs. But this year the wells are and craftsmen who also depend for their liv- dry and for the time being the equipment is a ing on the economic condition of the rural useless piece of machinery. His rabi sowing is population. But the grim struggle for life comes hardly off the ground and his kharif crop con- into the picture only some ten miles away from s Mostly of bajra stalks with not enough the well-irrigated green belt adjoining Poona "even for , sparrow to feed on." The city. From there on and hundreds of criss- gri crose Frm ter he normity of rino- great majority of the cultivators have only 3 to crossed miles later the enormity of little or no 5acehlig,ndtirsyngpwrsno food, little or no fodder, and little or no drink- re holdings, and their staying power is not ing water is inescapable. Once beyond the worth talking about. We do not mention the Poona green belt, the fields are deserted of man farm laborers because they, like the normally and cattle. Having missed the devastated fields well-off and not so well-off smaller cultivators, of Bihar in 1965-66, the sight of these fields find themselves in the same predicament but leaves one shaken by the perversity of nature. mainly because they prefer the customary field The striking feature of what one sees on both work to the jobs thAey are doing now. sides of the road is this: Where the rabi crop If an interested observer wishes to talk to should have been 2 to 3 feet high, it can be farmers, it is best to look for them neither in measured in very few inches, mere blades in the fields nor in the villages. This is not in- inure evidence of the catastrophe. The kharif tended to leave the reader with the impression crop was almost a total failure, unless a 70 to that most villages are deserted; only a few are 80 percent loss can be described in milder on account of lack of drinking water and lack terms. In a great many instances there was no of employment. With no work in the field, crop at all to harvest, while the luckier farmers there is no work in the villages either. The harvested a fifth or a tenth of the normally cultivators, the agricultural laborers (who, inci- notoriously low yields. Mindful of that experi- dentally, comprise a large contingent), and the ence, they approached the rabi season very few craftsmen-all these are employed or are cautiously; about half of the land was not seeking employment on relief projects. Farmers planted at all, and in the other half most of the do not always tell all; but there is enough evi- seed was wasted. And let us stress that we are dence that, barring exceptions, they have al- speaking not of pockets of failure but, with ready disposed or are in process of disposing the exception of sugarcane along canal-irrigated of such marketable possessions as jewelry and land, of the overwhelming part of the cultivated ornaments, other finery, and brass utensils, in- 6 million acres of the three districts. herited or acquired in better days, for the pur- It is their misfortune that they lie in the so- chase of food or fodder. After land their next called "rain shadow area" of the state where most precious possession is the livestock, and the rainfall is the least. True to form in par- they are disposing of that at an increasing rate ticularly bad years, the "rain shadow area" may lest it perish fos lack of fodder. At this point have produced much shadow but only a few and going only a few months back, not to showers in September when the rabi planting speak of the ha:.dships of 1970-71 and 1971- was under way-and nothing more since. The 72, relief work employment is their only safe- overall statistics of kharif production cited guard against u;:ter starvation. 518 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Relief projects complished in terms of work completed, the The government of Maharashtra and the col- number of people employed, and deaths from lectors of the districts recognize what was so widespread starvation prevented. wlle summed o the districlslcon watewasns It is not possible to quantify the work ac- well summed up in the following statement: complished in the first half of 1972-73; neither "The drought problem is human, economic are we in a position to judge the quality of and political, and essentially exposes the stark this work or the overall progress made along reality of poverty."2 The only recourse to miti- these lines in the visited districts. Yet it is obvi- gate these problems is through public relief ous that by far for the greater part the projects projects, and any criticism leveled against them are not in the nature of digging holes and is at the risk of total underestimation of the filling them in. During the past two years end- lifesaving role they play. In all of Maharashtra ing October 1972, the official figures for Maha- there were 6,600 "scarcity" relief projects and rashtra state are impressive: the area covered 4,000 "normal departmental" projects, or a under soil conservation is 1.8 million acres; the total of 10,600, as of November 21, 1972. In number of completed irrigation and percolation the districts of Ahmednagar, Poona, and Shola- tanks is 383; the road earthwork completed is put, the respective figures were 642 and 117, 43,000 kilometers, of which roads at a "safe 460 and 38, and 743 and 102. These projects stage" span 34,000 kilometers. Even if the offi- naturally fall into such main categories as soil cial figures err on the high side, we have seen conservation; minor irrigation works; excava- enough that is very reassuring. Much else not tion of canals for major, medium, and minor mentioned here must also have been done; and irrigation projects; percolation tanks; contour this can be seen, if not measured, in the dis- bunding as part of soil conservation; road bund- tricts, particularly in the field of canal excava- ing; and currently a great many stone-breaking tion. But for the drought and the imperative projects. An official list runs into twenty-two need to provide as many jobs as possible, the items, including the principal ones just men- canal projects would not be as far advanced as tioned. They need not be cited here, but, in they are now. A case in point is Kukdi Canal in brief, they run the gamut from priority projects the Ahmednagar district, which is reported to included under the state or national plans, to be five years ahead of schedule. Whether five priority for incompleted works undertaken dur- years or less, on at least two occasions when ing the two previous drought years, and on to visiting a relief project, the collector of Shola- measures relating to the fodder problem, the pu one iprdtowkwhcwul employment of students, and concessional ex- put pointed with pride to work which would amination fees, and finally to schemes for the yer lterwiTo ad e sme i the distribution of "nutritive food." The latest years later. To a degree, th .e same is true of the distibuion f "utriivefood" Te laest huge Bhima irrigation project initiated in 1964 (January 7) is a "relief gift" announced by to irrigate 400,000 acres at an estimated cost Prime Minister Gandhi during her tour of one of Rs60 crores. A visitor is inclined to accept of the Maharashtra drought districts. This is the assurance of the chief engineer that, under the center's decision to build the Konkan rail- the impact of the drought, the work is pro- way and three other railway projects, all with ceeding at a faster pace, immediately creating an eye to creating permanent assets and pro- more employment. The same goes for a num- viding sustained employment. With the num- ber of less ambitious irrigation schemes, some ber of drought-hit people seeking work antici- of which were late in coming despite the ample pated at 4 million in March-April, one cannot warnings of recent years. This is where the but welcome public undertakings of this magni- lessons of the past should have been given tude as part of the relief work program. All in greater consideration, and this is where pre- all, almost nothing has been overlooked that ventive therapy leaves much to be desired. can produce employment; much has been ac- Not all of the 2,100 projects of Poona, Sholapur, and Ahmednagar are productive in terms of lasting benefits; some of the earthwork 2. "Drought a Trigger For Economic Oppor- for road building or road repairs and the nu- tunity," Hindustan Times, vol. 49, no. 346. merous "metal projects," which stand for stone Drought in Maharashtra 519 breaking, are of questionable value. A well- "the British used it as a means of massive em- known writer on rural affairs pays unstinting ployment in the lamine of 1875." The argu- tribute to the projects, but he also introduces ment further runs that "if adequate measures a caveat worth quoting: had been taken, the tragedy wouldn't have Te reached present proportions," and, by exten- The real problem, however, lies ahead. sion, stone-breaking would have been only a Whereas the number requiring employment memory.4 The validity of this contention is dis- can be expected to double or triple, the cussed elsewhere; but, given the existing situa- scope for increased earthworks is limited. tion, it is difficult to quarrel with a collector's In the hard-core drought-zone districts most under-pressure approach. of the easier tank sites have been used and a It cannot be stressed often enough that the major part of the bunding program has vast majority of the rural community in these been completed . . . The additional employ- districts cannot and will not be able to make a ment will largely have to be provided by living from agriculture, surely not until the quarrying and metal breaking. Unless this kharif crop of June-July 1973 and just possi- scheme is implemented with great care, it bly not till September 1974. The reasoning could very easily result in the production of behind this lies in the prevalent pessimism huge quantities of useless rubble at un- among farmers and local officials about mon- wanted sites.:' soon prospects in 1973. If the latter variant The relief projects do not fall into the cate- (September 1974) is to be obviated, the 1973 gory of "integrated" rural development, so monsoon would have to be exceptionally good dear to the heart of the planner. Granting the to bring parched soil alive after three succes- beneficial effect of projects conceived as part sive droughts. This subject came in for much of a wider and continuing program of eco- discussion; and, to our knowledge, there are no nomic opportunity, the fact is that the projects bettors on a bountiful nature in the coming in being are keenly short of supervisory tech- year. This is crucial to the entire question of nical staff and considerable organization effort; the scope and number of relief works which and many of them are not carefully thought out. will ultimately determine the number of peo- Visiting any of the bigger projects, one is suir- ple provided with jobs as a means of survival. prised that so much is being done, though for the reasons mentioned, not always with the care and forethought that would imply quality Relief labor forc? and integration. Besides, there is another telling reason why, in conditions of a galloping crisis, In recent months the number of project em- what should be done cannot be done. The col- ployed has been growing by leaps and bounds. lectors who shoulder the burden of the ongoing In eleven readings between June 1, 1972, and projects and are pressed to improvise new November 15, 1972, average daily attendance crash programs soundly view them as job gen- has increased from 271,000 to 1,700,000. By erators above all else. The collector of Sholapur December 21, the figure was over 2 million. said something to the visitor with which all The official estimates through March 1973 other collectors would heartily agree: "You range between 3.5 and 4 million. This is for see those boulders in the mountains or wherever Maharashtra state. The story of the three dis- they may be-I'll break every one of them in tricts is seemingly grimmer. If Sholapur is order to keep the people employed." Many ob- taken as an example, it appears that, out of a servers are particularly critical about this re- total rural population of 1,600,000 and a much lief measure. Thus, "metal-breaking was once a smaller labor force, about 320,000 are em- form of hard labor for convicts under rigorous ployed on relief projects now; judging by the imprisonment"; and, to clinch the argument, daily clamor for jobs, the projected figure for 3. Ashok Thapar, "Drought in Maharashtra," 4. M. J. Akbir, "They Must not Die," The Illus- Times of India (December 7, 1972). trated Weekly of India (January 7, 1973). 520 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 April 1973 is around 500,000. Since there is growing demand for equal payment to men no particular reason to question this figure, the and women, but the basic complaints are about local authorities estimate that 70 to 80 percent the wages actually earned and the delays in of the adult population will seek such employ- making payments on the due date. In practice, ment. Ahmednagar presents roughly the same random samples in the course of brief stop- picture. In late November-early December the overs reveal that the maximum rates are earned relief project employed 210,000 and the sugar only by some, while an undetermined but large refineries employed an additional 70,000. With number of males earn much less than Rs2.5 the crushing season over in late February-early and women less than Rs2; their wages can be March, relief projects of one kind or another as low as Rst.50 and Rsl. This much is clear: will have to take care of them as well. This the maximum is largely window dressing. There apart, the collector emphasized that not all are, of course, exceptions. At a stone-breaking looking for jobs are getting them. By the early project, villagers boasted of Rs3 a day, though months of 1973, the collector envisaged an em- employed by a private contractor. As might be ployment roll of 350,000 to 400,000, or be- expected, in many of the projects created over- tween 60 to 70 percent of the adult population. night, charges are not lacking about dubious To date, young people of 18 and below are practices of the supervisors in making out the not project employable; but there are persistent pay slips, mostly for short paying them on the demands that the age limit be liberalized, al- work completed. Additionally, certain groups lowing minors in the 14 to 18 age group to of workers have to furnish their own hammers, engage in relief work. If it does come to that, picks, and crowbars and the rock blasters have the numbers will grow apace. What stands out to buy their own dynamite. There is a dis- from the preceding and is easily confirmed gruntlement on both accounts. An official tried visiting any of the larger projects is that two to regale us with a story that a project-employed or three members of one family-and some- family has done so well as to purchase some times four-live off the projects. This is one tolas of gold." Actually, whatever the wage rate of the major reasons why the collectors are con- and whenever it is collected, it is used to pur- stantly preoccupied with devising more proj- chase the food ration from a fair-price shop or ects to keep the pot boiling. One can't spend in the open market. any time in the company of a collector with- The ration itself consists of 8 (rarely 9) out realizing that in the back of his mind is kilograms of food per month, made up of 5 the problem of maintaining law and order, for kilograms of wheat, 2 kilograms of rice, and I which he is solely responsible. This political kilogram of jowar. In addition, a family must consideration cannot be divorced from the hu- buy sugar, salt, cooking oil and pulses, chillies, man and economic problems which reduce, in vegetables, tea and kerosene, and meet other effect, to feeding the potential starving. Any minimum, if basic, nonfood needs. To get an lapse in employment, however short lived, must approximate idea of earnings in relation to the be carefully watched, for it could lead to the food they can purchase, as distinguished from very circumstances the collectors are bent on the caloric intake, we assume a maximum of preventing. 26 working days per month, an average wage of Rs1.50, and three employed members per lrlaqes and food rations family (two males and one female). On this W e basis the monthly income per family in round What then are the conditions of these em- figures comes to Rsl17. The cost of the basic ployed which have so far prevented starvation ration per family of five at official prices is of the bulk of the rural community, though about Rs35 and that of the supplementary food serious undernourishment is prevalent? Most probably as much, since most of these items of them work directly for the management of are expensive and are bought in the open mar- the projects on a piece-work basis. But the ket; as we shall point out elsewhere, a great system must contend with this limitation: no male worker can earn more than Rs2.5 per day, and no female more than Rs2. There is a 5. One tola = 11.66 grams. Drought in Maharashtra 521 part of the basic ration also comes from the the basic ration and its volume compared with costly open market. Theoretically, this would the one officially prescribed. We touched on leave a family with Rs47 for all nonfood re- the latter in general terms, but something more quirements. This would not be bad except for specific needs to be said about it. In the com- a number of considerations which seriously pany of a high official of the Maharashtra gov- dilute our calculations. ernment, we looked at a lunch pail at one of In reality, twenty-six working days per the project sites, which was meant for six month is a standard not attained by the ma- obviously related workers engaged in the hard jority; occasionally they have to wait between job of blasting rock. The pail contained six ,projects and sometimes they are too exhausted bhakris, or a crude version of the better known to appear on the job day after day. The latter chapati. Nothing else. The eye, whether tutored is a factor emphasized by the chief minister in or untutored, could see there was enough to fill his plea with the central government for a free the stomachs of only two or, at the maximum, supply of high protein food at a cost of Rs7.5 three workers. Neither the official nor this per month per employee. He noted the lack of visitor felt like e:changing comments on its it in these words: "This has resulted in de- meagerness to avoid the obvious embarrassment terioration of their health and has further af- that this particular ration was tantamount to fected their physical capacity to work with the undernourishment or semistarvation. This was result that their output doesn't enable them to not an exceptional case, for it can be said with- earn the subsistence rates of wages allowed at out equivocation that the ration as finally trans- the relief works." The 8 kilograms ration is lated into food is deficient in calories and nutri- supposed to be supplied by the fair price shops tive value. The then much talked-about drive at concessional prices; but this, too, is not com- to supplement the pay with a free supply of mon practice. It is an open secret that these high protein food was understandable; and, shops are frequently short of supplies and that though something like that had existed during a good deal of the ration is brought at much the previous two drought years, in 1972 it was higher, open market prices. Five members per yet to make its appearance. In early 1973 such family is far from the rule, and the wages supplementary focd is likely to come into the earned often serve to sustain more than five. picture. The main complaint of the employed Nor can we ignore altogether the costly fodder and the local authorities both is that the ration expenditures by the many farmer workers who actually received ik much smaller than the pre- still maintain cattle. Clearly, the calculated scribed 8 kilograms. A newspaper headline Rs47 for "extras" is too high. The conflicting reads: "Maharashtra's Food Needs Fully Met."" information as between the collectors and the If so, this constituted a sudden and welcome farmer workers do not permit an exact an- change from the situation as it existed in early swer; but it seems that not much, if anything, December. is left for nonfood spending. Though em- If the information gathered is correct, the ployed, they are below the poverty line and procedure for ordring foodgrains is something there is no room for spare cash and tales such like this: A collector prepares his. requirements as buying gold. Incidentally, the 50,000 Indian on the basis of the official ration, but there is refugees from West Pakistan, following the allegedly a wide gap between requirements, Indo-Pakistan wars of a year ago, are doing allotments, and the amount of food actually better than the project employees of Maha- supplied. For example, Sholapur requirements rashtra. If the published reports are at all cor- were 12,000 tons of grain per month, the allot- rect, each family receives Rsl50 per month, ment was close to 8,000 tons, but the volume not counting tents, woolen blankets, jersies, furnished was 6,000 tons. Ahmednagar's re- and educational and medical services; and the quirements of 15.000 tons dwindled to an allot- forty-two camps in which they live are normally ment of 8,500 tons, while actual receipts in located in areas where water facilities are avail- November were not quite 7,500 tons and able. Related to the food problem are two other questions of prime importance: the quality of 6. The Statesm;n (December 16, 1972). 522 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Poona's 11,500 tons turned into 7,500 tons. dren, who cannot be employed. Hence the The official explanation for much of this lies "gratuitous relief" is in the form of very limited in transportation bottlenecks. Perhaps so, but cash doles. The dole rates per day are as follows: only in part; the more likely explanation is the Adult dependents Rs1.00 overall food shortage, the dwindling of the Nonworking children buffer stocks, and the stricter rationing among (over 12 years but states, including Maharashtra. under 14 years) RsO.65 The 8 kilograms per adult per month are a Children over 7 years puzzle we haven't resolved. Putting two and (but under 12 years) Rs0.45 two together, this basic ration means no more Children under 7 years RsO.35 than 930 calories per day. If the requirements versus deliveries are as the collectors claim, it This by no means involves any significant cov- can't be much more than half of that promised. erage even of the hardest hit districts judging If for the sake of argument it is still 900 or so by the fact that by November 15, 1972, only calories per day, and the supplementary food 17,000 people were under this scheme in all of amounts to another 500 to 600 calories; the Maharashtra. This is a highly selective cover- sum total is 1,400 or 1,500 calories, admittedly age and how selective may be judged by the a totally inadequate caloric intake for a manual following: In the admittedly very badly hit laborer. If the would-be improved extra food three districts we are discussing, with a total finally materializes, the theoretical grand total population of 5.5 million, dole-recipients num- might reach 1,700 to 1,800 calories. This, too, bered 6,200, 3,400, and a mere 2,000 in Shola- is insufficient; and how insufficient becomes put. Since the latter has 955 villages, the num- apparent when in India a male of 21 years and ber of dole recipients on a per village basis over requires a minimum caloric intake of is obviously very low. The inevitable conclusion 1,800, and additional 900 calories if he works is that as a relief measure it is only a drop in six hours a day as these laborers do. The real the bucket, and whatever sustenance comes difficulty as far as caloric intake is concerned their way is derived almost entirely from those lies in the assumption that the basic ration of members of the family employed on relief 930 calories is indeed received; this is doubtful, projects. for we do not believe that the collectors played games with us when they expounded on their problem of requirements versus deliveries. On Equality, relief expenditures top of this are the irregular deliveries; fair- price shops with short supplies; collectors con- For all the official concern about socialism and stantly on the phone to Bombay with dire equality in India and the measures supposedly warnings of supplies at dangerously low levels; leading to it, equality can be found only on the and, to repeat, many of the recipients doing project sites generated by the drought. The unaccustomedly hard work. The real question, latter, like a plague, is the effective leveler therefore, is not "scarcity" or "undernourish- recognizing neither rich nor poor, farmer ment"; this much nobody denies. The question owner nor landless, "untouchable" nor "touch- is whether those same people we are talking able." The sharp socioeconomic distinctions of about and their families, or a goodly number the village in normal days disappear as all these of them, are not subject to acute undernourish- groups compete for the Rs2.5 or Rs2 or less ment or semistarvation, a term which is offi- per day. This is the unforgettable experience cially taboo. of the venture into Maharashtra, and it can be easily tested on any of the projects. This we did by merely asking the assembled to state "Gratuitous relief" how much land they owned. The number of landless being large, the frequency of the re- As regards relief, the government of Maha- plies that "I am landless" is not surprising. rashtra is not totally unmindful of the old, What is surprising and what immediately infirm, disabled, and all others, including chil- points to the immensity of the drought disaster Drought in Maharashtra 523 are replies such as these: "I own 3 acres, 5 economies. Only poverty underscored by a dis- acres, 10 acres, 20 acres" and so forth. What astrous drought has seen to that, and come a crowned it all on one occasion was the reluctant good crop the same old inequalities will re- admission of a laborer, prodded by the as- assert themselves. sembled, that he owned 80 acres of land. For So long as there are boulders to break, canals him to break stones was a socially degrading to dig, roads to be built, and other projects to and altogether traumatic experience. Never- provide employment and food rations, short theless, there he was-and others like him, if though they may be, the situation can be con- with less land, who suffered during the previ- trolled. All this on the proviso that the source ous two droughts but were finally overcome of the mounting funds will not dry up. Whether by the current one, the worst within memory. this will or will not happen depends primarily Listening to the account of the big owner, he on the willingness and the ability of the union had fared no better on his vast acreage than government of India to supply the funds. Maha- had the small owner on his holding. When we rashtra couldn't do it on its own, especially suggested that he might have sold off some of considering the sums involved. By mid-1972 his land to spare himself the trouble of this central government teams, after a survey of the type of manual labor, it was greeted with mild situation, agreed to a relief grant of Rs20 amusement all around. This was like under- crores. By November, the government of Maha- scoring our ignorance in not knowing that no rashtra raised its demands by another Rs40 one is either willing or can afford to buy land crores; on December 5 and looking beyond in prevailing conditions. To the city buyer such 1972, its total su.ted relief requests upon the poorly endowed land is not a good investment central government till the end of March 1973 even as a tax shelter. have risen to R!;150 crores, of which Rs74 Strange as it may seem at first glance, con- crores have been granted, while the Central sidering the usual social and economic condi- Relief Committee of Maharashtra has estimated tions of the agricultural laborers, they are prob- the needed amount at about Rs300 crores. ably not much worse off now, except for the Granting that a hard-pressed state government type of work many of them are currently may have exaggerated its requirements, it is engaged in and dislike. This is not difficult to nevertheless true that, in the light of existing understand. In the.marginal rural areas repre- and anticipated support needs, ever-rising sented by the three districts, the normal period drought relief funds seem to be the order of of their agricultural employment is about 150 the day. Surely so, if the multitude of the days per year or less. Moreover, while employ- formerly relatively better off and the endemic ment was not geared only to adult males, em- poor are not to be decimated by a crisis of un- ployment generally was restricted. Wages were precedented virulnce. abysmally low, and only what came in kind as supplementary wages enabled them to keep body and soul together. Much of this has been voiced by the landless on the project sites. Now, Cattle, Fodder, and Drinking Water however, they enjoy certain advantages, tangible and intangible. Unlike the owners, they are not The consequences of the drought have many plagued by the psychological distress of being ramifications for jobs, food, and survival. These reduced to the lowest status of manual laborers; have already been discussed, but two more this has been their condition all along. Class remain to be related: shortages of fodder and distinction is not a criterion for project em- drinking water. One cannot spend five minutes ployment. So long as they are employed, they in the stricken region without becoming aware earn, pay for the rations, and eat and are under- that both man and beast are profoundly af- eating in roughly the same fashion as do most fected by these two problems. It is pointless to owners similarly employed. This is the nature judge which is the more serious; both are of equality but not as a result of social justice equally grave in their own way, and what fol- practices or better income distribution in the lows is a detailed discussion of the scope of wake of buoyant agricultural and industrial these problems and their consequences. 524 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 Disappearing cattle down; and, traditionally, numerous farmers with In all three districts the cattle or the fodder cattle are employed in the sugar refineries dur- problem is critical. These districts have not a ing the crushing season, lasting three to four u months. Feeding the cattle is part of the coin- touch about them of Punjab, Haryana, or west- pensation, but by February-March they will ern Uttar Pradesh where mechanization is sup- hation t to thei va n d o planting animal power. A tractor is a rarity; in have to return to their villages and add to the all of Maharashtra their number exceeds only .anable for 2,000; and of the more than 2 million plows, Genal spei wooden ones account for three-fourths of the therugh sefetnc a s fo s the drou(,ht effect on cattle is about as follows: total. Here cattle and plow are the mainstays i i o fodder is running out, keeping cattle is an of all farm operations; and, as the cattle go, so goes the power to produce a crop. The point is ing daily; and the creation of special camps that an undetermined but large part of the ing daily;a teeion of ecia c livestock population may vanish via starvation for.oun fe.e s becoe ahmch talked-about issue, the solution of which is or throwaway sales to the slaughterhouses. very "iffy." As so much else about the drought Sholapur district may be cited as an example of and the 1973 outlook, the really difficult situa- the prevailing fodder situation, although Poona tion lies in the immediate future. The same and Ahmednagar districts Would do just as holds for the cattle situation. For example, in well. In late October the meager supplies were Sholapur the total number of "useful" cattle estimated at 25 percent of requirements, and (bullocks, cows, and buffaloes) is nearly half a these will not last much beyond December. . During our visit in early December the fodder pillin. By the end odeer au h0 alarm bells were ringing all over the districts. perc.e o th ere foe h to come from government sources, indigenous Import prospects are dim; even if the govern- . i ment of Maharashtra had made an effort in oripre .suigtaschoreswl men o Mhaastr ha mdeanefor. i be found, which is not likely, the government that direction, it is questionable if it would woud h to n likel00 perlyoa have succeeded; the neighboring states with tol of ao sen million u e next greater availability have virtually declared a khalif cro c s-f mildoe the et ban on exports. Neighboring districts are in a precarious condition, and districts within all but threw his hands up at this prospect, not . on account of the vast sum involved but be- Maharashtra with some fodder to spare are on .con ftevs LMivle u e relcashtoara with som fodcause of the unavailability of fodder. Said he: Relucnt todder p rtis it. e "The problem is gigantic, and it is highly Rising fodder prices are as expected; and doubtful if so much fodder can be made avail- the anomaly is that, while sugarcane sells at ,d Rsl50 a ton, fodder sells at Rs300. More to the able from any source. Fortunately for the government exchequer point is that 100 bundles of fodder sell at Fortunately for the farmet ential Rs12, ad a oodheadof attl reuire at and unfortunately for the farmers, this potential Rsl20, and a good head of cattle requires at budni. en rdalyesdb h b least 5 bundles for daily consumption at a cost normal aitioin th .lesc populao of Rs6 per day. Few farmers can afford to spend a bytdites ss the butc Theusto thatmuchnotwhena wrkin adlt iale and by distress sales to the butchers. The story that much-nor when a working adult male that a farmer sold in Bombay a pair of bullocks earns Rs2 or less per day, most of it spent on for a bunch of bananas is probably apocryphal, buying food. Even if three in the family are and yet it is not without a point. According to engaged in such work, the total intake would the evidence, the picture is not one of exchang- fall short of feeding a pair of bullocks if they ing cattle for bananas but of abnormally low have to buy the fodder in the open market, prices that would buy little food or little fodder. None of this means that a traveler doesn't en- For instance, farmer X on one of the project counter numerous farmers carting loads of this sites informed the visitors that he had bought and that pulled by cattle, especially government- a bullock three years back for Rs500 and re- provided grain supplies or sugarcane. These cently sold it for Rs75 for fear it would perish are the fortunate ones. To begin with, the irri- before much longer. Our notebook abounds gated sugarcane crop is only about 10 percent in such purchase and sale figures as Rs600 and Drought in Maharashtra 525 Rr8O; Rg900 (for a pair) and Rsl20; Rs400 of Vidarbha region where an estimated 200,000 and Rs55; and, incredible -as it may sound, cattle could be accommodated. This means that Rs350 and Rs20. A visit to a weekly cattle in the three districts where forests are con- market told the same story, if not worse. The spicuous by their absence, cattle would have influx was so large that the many-acred market to be transported over long distances. This expanse was flooded with cattle in anticipation prospect has created a subsidiary issue: If the of buyers. The sales were few; the butcher districts were to come forward with a maxi- buyers were few in number, and feeble animals mum of 100,000 head of cattle, who was going were selling for as little as RsIO to 15. In the to pay the Rs60 per small wagon transporting two other districts the situation was about the five animals? More important is the concern same. of the local administration that many "useless" These were clearly distress sales at giveaway cattle not worth preserving might find their prices. Not one of the sales was to another way into the camps, whereas the farmers are farmer; they were all consigned to slaughter- reluctant to send their better stock to faraway houses. Naturally, no farmer we talked to was camps over which they have no control. There happy about this arithmetic. Apart from the are other related problems, some of which do immediate loss, a farmer touched on the crux not bode well for this scheme as a major way of the matter to the visible approval of the out of the difficulty. gathering when he delivered himself of this In fairness, whether the forest camps will observation: "If the rains do come next kharif materialize or not, officials are deeply preoccu- season, what shall we use for motive power?" pied with this problem of how to preserve as This is a thought that bedevils the farmers; but, much of the livestock population as possible. considering the circumstances, they are com- Nevertheless, we left with the impression, per- pelled to do the most expedient thing, fully haps a mistaken one, that as of the end of 1972 recognizing that eight months later they will the contribution of the forest camps cannot be a be just as heavily indebted and with no credit significant one. The greater promise, though of to speak of to enable them to buy a useful pair relatively short duration, lies in the relatively of bullocks. We encountered cynics arguing nearby camps provided by the sugar refineries. that the sales and the dying out of so many We visited this type of camp in Ahmednagar cattle is a blessing in disguise, practically a where 2,000 animals were munching away on Malthusian solution to their excessive numbers. green fodder. This lot of cattle will be pre- "The fewer the better" is based on the proposi- served. There are a number of similar camps, tion that approximately half the livestock popu- and the thirteen sugar refineries of the district lation is useless, merely competing with the are likely to take care of about 50,000 cattle farm community for food. Whether so or not, during the crushing season; the search for the immediately the farmer is the loser and in the rare commodity elsewhere will then commence future he will be deprived of his motive power, once again. We conclude, therefore, that the however inefficient it may seem to the non- "save cattle" campaign can preserve in good farmer. condition only a relatively small part of the The same cynics recognize that the better animal population-unless the forest-grazing livestock must be saved before they become idea is activated and the difficulties eliminated enfeebled and share the fate of those already so that the farmers will readily agree to long- doomed. This explains the hue and cry heard distance transportation. In that event, the pre- in all the visited districts about the urgency of vailing talk that half of the livestock population establishing special camps for communal feed- may die of starvation or be consigned to the ing in forest-grazing areas or other suitable loca- slaughterhouses might hopefully prove exag- tions. Without going into the conflicting fig- gerated. On the other hand, the drought being ures on forest-grazing possibilities that emanate neutral, if the current state of affairs extends from a variety of sources, the chief minister into the coming promiseless months, the dis- of Maharashtra stated on December 21 that 150 tricts in question will be sharply denuded of camps had been established in the forest area poor as well as of good stock. The above-quoted 526 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 farmer may indeed have a devil of a time look- the United States, making a total of fifty-one rigs ing for cattle to pull his plow if the rains do from domestic and foreign sources. As against come. this anticipation, in early December Maharash- tra accounted for only fourteen rigs in opera- Drinking water tion. Of these, thirteen are capable of drilling bore wells of 4-inch diameter to the depth of What fodder, or its shortage, is to cattle, the 200 feet; the remaining one is capable of shortage of drinking water is to humans. This drilling a 6-inch diameter to a depth of 400 is one of the principal headaches of all con- feet. The results of this last rig are especially cerned. On all occasions this problem stuck out gratifying. In the rocky geological conditions as the sorest of thumbs. Malnutrition is bad prevalent in Maharashtra, this is what induces enough, but inadequate drinking water and not the search for this type of equipment. In the infrequently the outright lack of it is a basic meantime the drought-afflicted villages of the cause of at least some farmers pulling up stakes. three districts have to make do with two and And for a farmer to desert his village, his land, occasionally three rigs. The additional equip- and such way of life as he has been accustomed ment will be of inestimable value, but for the to is an act borne of desperation. In the field time being it would be foolhardy not to recog- it doesn't take much searching to become aware nize the manifestly inadequate supply of this of the extent of this visitation. All one has to type of equipment if. we consider the fol- do is look into the wells. While we didn't look lowing:7 into all of the 70,000 wells in one of the dis- Out of nearly 35,665 inhabited villages in tricts, those we looked into were mostly as dry the State, the expectation is that at the be- as a bone. There are the usual exceptions and thenState, the exetationi that at tbe long queues where women spend hours to get ginning of the Fifth Plan, there would still a bucket of water of doubtful purity-and not be 19,000 villages needing attention. This always getting it. With the aid of tankers, would include villages with no adequate mostly donated by the oil companies, water is source of water within acceptable distance, trasprtd crss onidraledistances, pri- villages which are susceptible to endemic transported across considerable dsac,pr- water borne diseases and villages located in marily to the relief works, where it is rationed saline hilly tracts. In villages where bore as if it were gold. This, incidentally, is where sell t rct ineillage whr ore we saw our first tanker in operation. There, too, well is the source, it is necessary that one the water leaves much to be desired; but in successful bore be fitted with a hand-pump distress of this magnitude, beggars cannot in- and another with a power-pump. In villages deed be choosers. In early December with rela- where the bore is not likely to yield or does tively cool weather, the situation was as de- not actually yield adequate water, it is pro- scribed; worse to come will be the time when posed to undertake water supply schemes it begins to warm up, particularly during the through the Public Health Engineering months of March, April, and May. Measures Organisation of the Irrigation and Power like transportation of water by tankers and Department. In such cases, the water is lifted bllke crasprtnrtaiation of somerb kers o d tfrom a nearby perennial river or a stream bullock carts and revitalization of some of the is dammed across a seasonal flow source. In wells have been initiated, but so far the im- thdifclvlagsppewtrsulys pact of these are not commensurate with the the difficult villages, piped water supply is size of the problem. What these districts need proposed to be undertaken leaving the in- sad oMaharashtra as a whole is high-speed ternal distribution by way of house connec- -and Maaahr sawoei ihsed tions to be provided by the Village Pan- drilling rigs which can dig a well to a depth of 200 feet or so in one day and, with luck, find chayats through their own funds if they so water. With the help of WHO/UNICEF, during choose. While the exact financial implica- the past seventeen months, 430 bore wells have tions of the programs cannot be indicated, been drilled and nearly 80 percent of these it is expected that the total financial outlay wells have proved successful. In his statement of December 21 the chief 7. "Approach of Maharashtra State to the Fifth minister spoke of twenty-one rigs ordered from Five-Year Plan," (September 1972), pp. 12-13. Drought in Maharashtra 527 in respect of the rural water supply scheme can be said with fair certainty: Early 1973 will during the Fifth Five Year Plan will be ap- not yield much drinking water; it will probably proximately RslOO crores. yield more misery before the cup runneth over. All of the above deals with drinking water. Whether it is exactly 19,000 villages or Rs100 Refugees crores more or less or whether the drinking We mentioned refugees in passing, but some- water upon the completion of the fifth five-year thing more should be said in view of the plan will reach the consumer precisely as plethora of dramatic reports on the subject. described or whether the Irrigation and Power Figures on the number of refugees are hard to Department will perform as expected-all these come by. Depending upon the source, there are issues which need not be quibbled about at are few, not so few, and the possibility of a the moment. The villages of the districts pro- great many of them not many months hence. A vide supporting evidence for what one might news item of December 20 reports 2,500 in view as an alarming statement. There is addi- Poona city and 1,500 in Bombay according to tional evidence of a different sort. We stated at the information of the Maharashtra govern- the outset that individual drought tragedies ment, but estimates of the Municipal Corpora- will be eschewed. Nevertheless, they cannot be tion of Greater Bombay speak of 25,000. To altogether avoided. Upon our return to Bom- cap it all, the chief of the Poona division as- bay from the districts, we encountered the un- serted that if the rains continue unkind, the usual that others have also been encountering number of refugees from his six districts may lately, namely, a group of farmer beggars. An- eventually reach a high of 1,250,000. Only this swers followed questions, the primary burden much is obvious: There are refugees, their of which was not only the search for work but number is on the increase, and their prospects also to quench the thirst. As one of them put for employment in the cities are not promis- it: "We are used to hunger; we are not expect- ing. In search for any work to avoid begging, ing to get food-paying jobs in Bombay, but we there have been cases of wages driven down, are still getting water here." The taps in the which doesn't sit well with the manual laborers hotels still run full, but the water supply of of Bombay on whose territory the refugees en- Bombay itself is below normal; and the refugee croach. Whether in smaller or greater numbers, farmers, as beggars or manual laborers, living they remind one of the East Pakistani refu- in open encampments or under makeshift gees but with this difference: The latter were tents, may not have escaped the water pinch provided with the basics of food, water, and or other deprivations. shelter. The native ones are on their own and It would be a mistake, however, to leave the at this early stage depend mainly on private, impression that the district administrators are not always well-financed, charitable organiza- not doing their best to ease this problem. We tions and such funds as are provided by the have been repeatedly impressed with their Municipal Corporation of Bombay. If the pre- spoken and unspoken concern. But the facili- diction of the chief of the Poona division comes ties at their disposal are negligible. Having to pass, only a national effort could see them failed to heed the warnings of the past years, through an altogether novel experience. There the drinking water situation, as so much else are reports that Bombay authorities are trying about the drought and how to deal with it, may to arrest the trickle of refugees lest it swell be summed up, at least in part, as follows. Rural into a flood. The main inducement to attain Maharashtra and certainly our districts are like this are promises of jobs where they came a city on fire, the fire brigades trying to put out from. The obvious reasons to stop the refugee fires beyond their capacity in innumerable movement are the additional strains and nooks and corners. It helps to explain without stresses this would create in an already over- condoning why the actual expenditure for crowded city like Bombay. Whether the com- drinking water relief in the three districts was ing months will lend themselves to a remedy so small that we hesitate to cite it. In the midst of this kind is a matter no one can foretell. But of all the known and unknown, only one thing regardless of the number and future develop- 528 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 ments, at this juncture we are reminded of an pation. What is important is that "scarcity" as old Russion saying that nobody runs away from it is known in the region discussed here leads a good life. This is surely true of the refugees. to debilitation and fatalities through illness or epidemics which in themselves are a product of food shortages. Finally, whatever the label, Scarcity or superscarcity any of these designations are not only a drought Throughout, the operative word was "scarcity." phenomenon but also a manifestation of the Maharashtra, other drought states, and the underlying poverty problem. We need hardly central government have preferred to drop the recall that even in normal times most of the word famine "as a thing of the past," substi- people in the three districts manage only a tuting "scarcity" for it. They are right, for hand-to-mouth existence. famine means starvation and death on a large scale. This is not the present case, whereas the 11ill peasants rebel? Bengal famine of 1943 meant just that. Never- theless, the word "scarcity" calls for delineation Considering the prevailing conditions in the since it is used for a very wide range of phe- three districts, it is a source of wonderment nomena. Scarcity may mean that crops are ad- that the afflicted take it without overt protests, versely affected and that the yield is less than let alone without resorting to violence. There 50 percent of normal expectations. Yet, it may was such a case with four persons killed when also mean what has happened in these three under the leadership of one of the Communist districts: intense hardship where there are parties a large group of demonstrators stormed hardly any crops, a totally inadequate supply an official's office protesting against sharply ris- of fodder, and a serious shortage of drinking ing prices. A few cases of "misbehavior" of a water. It is scarcity in the latter sense that has milder sort are not unknown; this was illus- hit the rain-shadow areas of Maharashtra for trated by a recent riot (January 5) in Chandra- the third successive year. The debates in the put district where relief workers went on a Lok Sabha on a variant of this very subject are rampage demanding a flat payment of Rs2.5 per worth mentioning. The opposition's claim that day per man and Rs2 per woman. Apart from the reported deaths in some scarcity areas were such instances, perhaps the only real protest is due to "starvation" was countered by the govern- registered by those who take the extreme step ment with the argument that malnutrition and of deserting their villages to search for jobs disease did them in. This argument partakes elsewhere. On the whole, one is mystified by more of semantics than substance. The fact is the lack of widespread militancy on the part that since the Bengal horror of 1943 which of the low wage employed and especially on claimed some three million lives, the specter the part of the many who are not employed at of classical famine and death has disappeared all. This observer couldn't help but cogitate from India. Better distribution and timely in- about the causes explaining it, spinning out all puts are responsible for that, and the successful kinds of theories about age-old customs, culture, solution of the Bihar food crisis in 1965-66 was religion, caste, and subservience. But in order an example. Crop failure nowadays manifests not to get bogged down in the complexities of itself more pointedly by depriving large num- each mentioned item and recalling something bers of people of sufficient purchasing power to of Indian history, let us just say that the mystery buy the grain which might be available else- resides in a traditional rural nonmilitancy. This where. This is what has happened in the three is not to overlook the fact that causes for vio- districts; hence the need for relief works. Once lent outbreaks have not been lacking both be- they are created in sufficient numbers, people fore and after independence. Thus, in 1895 are employed, wages are paid, and food rations Maharashtra was the center of the well-known are available-the worst of a starvation threat Deccan riots, the cause being fantastically is over, although malnutrition as distinct from usurious money rates, default, ensuing loss of starvation persists. Therefore, whether it should land, and pauperization-hence totally unex- properly be called "starvation" or "malnutri- pected riots. tion" or only "scarcity" is not a useful preoccu- However, although traditionalism persists, it Drought in Maharashtra 529 is undeniable that times have also changed. The food supplies. It is -he combination of all these government of Maharashtra receives practically elements which probably explains why the no revenue from the stricken villages-and ample combustible material for violent action nothing much is said or done about it. Apart has so far not been ignited. Having said this, -from the fact that you can't get blood out of a it is equally true that given a repetition of turnip, no local administrator can afford to 1972 in 1973, we Wouldn't bet a paisa that all trifle with the mood of a depressed, hungry, the cited explanations would again suffice to and angry community-except at grave risk. keep Poona, Ahrnednagar, and Sholapur in The rural cooperatives are in shambles, for it hand. -is no longer a question of 30 or 40 percent overdues but one of no loan repayment whatso- ever. Ditto for the moneylender, but neither the coops nor the moneylenders nor the gov- Conclusion ernment would dare to press their demands to the point of taking over the land or indulge Little remains to be said by way of conclusion, in even less drastic measures. There are other but, if custom dictates one, a few items may be factors, one of them a negative one, which touched upon, mostly in repetition. First and also tend to keep unrest within bounds. Unlike foremost, the drought in Maharashtra does not urban labor, there is practically no organized lend itself to exaggeration. As Gertrude Stein farm movement to speak of to press for higher would have said, a disaster is a disaster is a dis- wages, more ample rations, better-stocked fair- aster is a disaster. "Scarcity" is not the word for price shops, and lower food prices. Finally, the it, even if only 15 million out of a rural popu- jobs of many are at marginal reward levels; lation of 35 million-as against the official 20 but they do help to blunt the cutting edge of million-depend to a larger or smaller extent discontent. on the government for their sustenance. The Yet the picture is mixed and one of unease, scale of the assistance effort of the Maharashtra which is another aspect of changing times with government is undeniable as is that of the their greater political consciousness and prom- central government. One may cavil about the ises of better days ahead. On project sites one amounts allocated, the inadequate food deliv- is repeatedly struck by a sense of misery rather eries, and so on; but surely at this point neither than a prevailing violence in the air, as one the state nor the central governments can be observer contends. This is not to argue with charged with negligence or disinterestedness. the writer of the most graphic of articles on the Considering with what the district collectors subject to date.' We would add only that, if have to make do, their performance on the misery topped by anger could be harvested, the firing line has been altogether praiseworthy. local authorities would have to deal with some- A number of the projects they initiated or in- thing much more potent than a mere sense of herited will be of lasting importance. The unease. The collectors are very much alive to often heard outside complaint about too many this prospect; we haven't met one who didn't stone-breaking projects has little merit; chip- express his fear along these lines in the loom- ping stone six hours a day is a backbreaking ing, crucially difficult months of 1973. A col- job, but it does stand between starvation and lector has enough chores to fill a legal-size survival. What stands out is that the collectors sheet of paper, but as we observed him in action correctly perceived that what matters most at he is no longer the collector even as of two or the moment is rot integrated agricultural de- three years ago. What he applies himself to velopment for which there is neither the time above all is the maintenance of law and order, nor the technical-organizational arrangements not so much via police force as through the but feeding the otherwise starving with the creation of projects yielding employment, and limited resources at their command. The year beating the drums for a greater availability of 1972 might have turned into an old-fashioned famine but for the measures taken. It might have led to a breakdown of law and order. That 8. M. J. Akbar, op. cit. this has not haFpened so far is a measure of 530 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 the farmers' essential political nonmilitancy and poor and degraded is not the better part of of the local administration's preventive assist- wisdom. It is, of course, possible that a good ance programs. This much on the plus side in all-India crop and a resurgent industrial econ- the midst of extreme privations. omy in 1973-74 could make it easier to fill the On the negative side are meager wages, current wide deficiencies with which the dis- meager food rations, meager caloric intake tricts are studded. If that is not in the cards, bordering in many cases on semistarvation, and an explosive situation will continue in the mak- the woeful fodder and drinking water prob- ing so long as semistarvation and farmer refu- lems. Much of this has resulted from an act of gees migrating to the cities continue to be facts God, yet Maharashtra has had ample warning of life. If, therefore, the lid is to be kept on since 1961-62 (and before); some of the and while hesitating to proffer advice, it should drought misfortunes could have been mini- be the business of the Maharashtra government mized if only the lessons of the past had not to tell its people that the essentials for a rea- gone unheeded. As in the case of Andhra sonably adequate survival will be provided Pradesh, Maharashtra practices shock therapy where they are needed, come what may. This now in lieu of the preventive therapy that would be a promise worth keeping. For all too should have been undertaken a good while long promises have been a game played with back. For all the kilometers of roads built, impunity; but it is not unlikely that the next percolation tanks repaired, irrigation facilities time around, poor rations, understocked or initiated, and soil conservation accomplished, empty fair price shops, or inadequate labor re- it can be argued that the reputedly well- wards will lead to the very upheavals the col- administered state of Maharashtra was late in lectors are so eager to avoid. The traditionally recognizing the trouble it has been storing up nonmilitant farmers may take a leaf out of the for itself and, above all, for its people. The Deccan riots and settle accounts in their own altogether too small supply of badly needed way. high-powered boring rigs points this up. There To revert to the drought in India as a whole, is hardly any excuse for the whole of Maha- its treatment leaves a good deal to be desired. rashtra to have had only fourteen of them and From late summer on it was no secret that the to be only now anxiously looking for another drought was a widespread calamity gravely af- fifty or more. With adequate foresight this need fecting farmer and nonfarmer. And yet for a might have been met years ago. Equally true time there was hesitation and a lack of candor is the failure to judge in good time the scope in coming to grips with it as a national issue. of the unprecedented crop failure and to make The implied excuse that panic had to be the state's demands on the central government avoided did not prevent rapidly rising prices accordingly. Maharashtra has behaved in this and a squeeze on all consumers, above all on respect not unlike officials who look late in the the poor. An adequacy of food imports should day for grain imports in high-priced markets have been assured when their effectiveness depleted of their surpluses. The same may be would have been greatest-and at a lesser cost. said about the permissive attitude of Maha- The picture may well change next year. The rashtra toward the inadequate buffer stock de- upcoming rabi crop is said to be promising; liveries. Only relatively recently, when a rapidly the cycle of four good monsoon years and one deepening food crisis in the districts was there poor one is likely to be in for a renewal, and for all to see, did Maharashtra firmly stand up 1973-74 may demonstrate once again India's for an increasing flow of food supplies and for unquestioned agricultural potential. But none funds more in consonance with its rising needs. of this can erase for some time the memory of The tragedy of the afflicted millions is that this year's experience or that of the Maharash- all this is not water over a dam, for the first tra's year of troubles. half of 1973 is breeding social and economic Something else should be added. The suffer- distress and tensions possibly more virulent ing and degradation of millions in Maharashtra than those of 1972. Neither is it certain that and elsewhere due to scarcity or "superscarcity" the rest of 1973 will yield anything better. cannot be ascribed entirely to nature's caprice. Banking on the continued quiescence of the Such occurrences are a familiar Indian story, Drought in Maharashtra 531 but to blame it all on acts of God while treat- in other states were converted mainly to live- ing famines as an "outmoded concept" is a stock grazing demanding smaller investments contradiction that flies in the face of reality. but arguably more useful than what goes under That reality, in the light of what it takes to the name of "irrigation" in drought-prone coinbat droughts five minutes before or five areas? Though not a novel idea, much needs minutes after twelve, raises the question of to be done before answers are fitted to such developmental policies and priorities. Maha- questions. Whether they will be forthcoming rashtra-and other states are good examples of or not, it is well to keep in mind the "normal" what we have in mind. By the time the state situation: very low yields on the one hand and is done with the 1972-73 abomination, it will the constant threat of a monsoon failure on the probably have spent a good share of what it other. Joined with this is the fact that the vast might have taken to create a protective irriga- sums spent on relief in the past were for the tion system in the traditionally afflicted areas. most part only temporary palliatives incapable If such funds had been used for this purpose of neutralizing or minimizing the onslaught of throughout the past decade, they would have a new drought. made a salutory difference. Lasting improvements or changes in what- Apart from what we have said thus far, we ever form lie in the future, at best. Immedi- have no recommendations to make. Maharash- ately and in regard to Maharashtra, we con- tra is a well-governed state not lacking in clude on nothing more cheerful than is dic- talented administrators and capable technical tated by the observations recorded here. Facts experts. They know what has gone wrong and and figures are "stubborn things," as a famous why. It is idle, therefore, to urge upon them political leader asserted; and Maharashtra, par- to be "innovative," "integrative," to do "the ticularly the three districts, abounds in them. right thing at the right time," and so forth. In It is doubtful if more refined evidence gathered fact, we could recite a dozen "should be dones," at greater leisure would yield anything more but this would be neither a balm to this con- encouraging about the current state of affairs. cerned observer nor an aid to the overworked As to the shape of things to come, the picture officials who have written them out in the first is both clear and obscure. No one can speak place. On the face of it, there is seemingly with certainty about the kharif crop of 1973, nothing the matter with them-if only timely but the five or six months preceding planting implementation could be brought into play. will be more difficult than in the preceding This old hat is known to all and sundry, and year unless all tribulations are swept away there is no point breaking into open doors. If through extraordinary relief measures. The a recommendation is to be made, it is the obvi- chances of a good 1973 rabi crop are no better ous one: It is time that the lessons of the past or no worse than those of the kharif crop. Both droughts be assimilated and acted upon in are unknowns and are entitled to nothing terms of resource allocation to minimize their better than a fifty-fifty quantification. In sum, scope and consequences. And with this go a the government of Maharashtra cannot exclude couple of questions which relate not only to the possibility of facing more of the same as Maharashtra: Is it not time to give thought to the new year gets under way. After all, there the questionable usefulness of crop farming in is no guarantee that Indra, the God of rain, admittedly difficult rainfed areas? Would it not will not choose to play truant for the fourth be more beneficial, for example, if a large part time in a row; and it is against this that the of the three districts or similarly affected areas government of Maharashtra must be prepared. 532 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 59. The Rural Scene Ladejinsky's contribution to the World Bank's 1973 report on India's economic situation and prospects reviewed the nationwide impact of the previous year's drought and assessed the long-term agricultural outlook, in addition to dealing with the themes pursued in his previous annual reports. Omitted here is his final updating of the progress and failings of the rural poverty programs, already dealt with in some detail in his 1972 report. The Drought future. These, then, are the main themes of this year's account of the agricultural scene. IN THE ANNALS of Indian agriculture, the year Other issues, notably rural poverty and rural 1972-73 will be remembered primarily for its credit, are omitted. In these regards and unless crop failure and for the new round of land ceil- the increased volume of credit be considered ings legislation, the latest in a series of efforts the touchstone of performance, no significant to deal with the most difficult issues of agrarian improvements worth reporting have taken place reform. But overall, where 70 percent of the in the course of the year; and last year's de- people depend for their living on farming, it is tailed examination of these problems should the decline of the kharif (summer) crop by suffice for the time being. 9 to 10 million tons which looms largest in Only a year ago, in conditions well below assessing the agricultural scene. The principal those of the record crop already attained, India sufferers are obviously the farmers of the still seemed on the threshold of food self- stricken areas, but the repercussions are much sufficiency. Judging by the rising trend of grain wider. The nearly 20 percent increase in food- production-an overall increase of 19 million grain prices between January 1972 and Janu- tons between 1964-65 and 1970-71-there was ary 1973 has had a depressing effect on the reason to believe that the country was begin- economy in general and more immediately on ning to emerge from the era of food shortages the consumers, particularly the overwhelming and food imports. The officially pronounced majority of the poor. In a country where 40 to policy in early 1972 of no concessional food 50 percent of the people live below an austerely imports and the flight of unofficial fancy that defined poverty line and where 50 to 60 per- the country might even export grain in the cent of the family budget is devoted to food, near future were part of the picture suggesting the deleterious consequences of the drought that India was turning the corner. The only need not be labored. This apart, the drought variable omitted in all these anticipations was has given rise to much unsubstantiated specu- the behavior of the monsoon. This year, after lation about the inadequate potential of the three favorable ones and two only moderately agricultural economy of the country and, more so, it has played truant in many parts of the especially, about the "failure" of the Green country, bringing in its wake severe food short- Revolution. All that need be said here by way ages, sharply mounting food prices throughout of a preface is that, while the tragedy of the the country, and grave privations. afflicted is real beyond doubt, taking the long The statistical and interpretative picture of view the gloom emanating from the drought agricultural production in India is presented in on these two accounts is not warranted. The the previous chapter [omitted]; but by way of fact is that the Indian agricultural economy summary of the impact of the drought it suffices has not been stagnating, and there is reason to to say that this year's was one of the worst in believe that it will make further strides in the recent memory, the monsoon rains having failed The Rural Scene 533 over a large part of the country. The precise the new rabi (winter) crop commences in number of people affected is difficult to esti- May 1973. In the light of the government mate, but conservatively speaking tens of mil- takeover of the wholesale trade of wheat and lions of people have been subjected to very rice, the size of the rabi crop, that of the 1973- inadequate food rations. To this must be added 74 crop, the volume procured, and the quality shortages of drinking water and shortages of of distribution will be crucial. The successful fodder, which in turn consigned a large numn- test will come if as a result of the trade take- ber of the cattle population to the slaughter- over the government of India manages to pro- houses or death from starvation. This calamity cure 8 million tons of wheat as against 5 .was not as countrywide as some observers claim, million tons a year ago. But as of the moment, but it made its deepest inroads in the states of India is likely to wind up its agricultural year Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Guja- ending in June with a total estimated food- rat, large pockets of Mysore, Madhya Pradesh, grain crop of close to 100 million tons and a and segments of Uttar Pradesh. In the first- reserve stock of about 4 million tons includ- mentioned state alone, an estimated 20 million ing imports-instead of 9 million tons in the out of a rural population of 35 million suffered preceding year. For a country like India with from the drought and will remember it for its unpredictable climatic vicissitudes and rising years to come. demands due to population growth, this is not Space does not permit even a fleeting de- a satisfactory position unless both the winter scription of the intense hardships borne by the and summer crops of 1973 are good indeed. In stricken rural communities, and yet the 1972 that event, the current food gloom will have drought did not develop into the classical dissipated. famine with its accompanying horrors of mass It is not far-fetched to hope that the latter mortality. This is explained by a number of might come to pass, and the 1972 visitation factors, the principal one being the 9 million may be just another familiar passing phase tons of buffer stocks. These made the difference typical of Indian agriculture. The cycle of four between starvation and survival, even if in the or five reasonably good monsoon years followed midst of privation. Next in order of importance by a poor one will probably be in for a renewal, were the massive relief works generating em- and 1973-74 may demonstrate once again ployment. Once they are created in sufficient India's unquestionable agricultural potential. numbers and people employed, wages are paid But the suffering and degradations of millions and some form of food rations are provided by reduced to meager relief work wages and the buffer stock; the worst of starvation is meager food rations cannot be entirely at- averted, although debilitating malnutrition per- tributed to nature's caprice. Such acts of God sists. This is India's case in 1972. Apart from are an old Indian story, but their pernicious the traumatic experience of farmers barely effects might have been tempered through keeping body and soul together tending relief timely preventive measures rather than through works instead of planting and harvesting crops, shock treatment after the event. As it is, the the material loss of failed crops and general record shows that large sums are spent on pauperization of the drought-affected communi- drought relief without creating a significant ties is enormous; and the farm income of some residual to mini-ize the ill effects of the next of the states will have been cut by half, more drought. Mindful of this experience and the or less. The government of India has by now dire need to augment production, the govern- incurred emergency expenditures in one form ment of India is not banking now only on a or another to the extent of Rs4.4 billion, a good monsoon. As an emergency measure it is burden it can ill afford. The burden would have providing the state governments with Rs1.5 been much greater but for very stringent con- billion to create additional minor irrigation fa- trol over the purse strings. This is exclusive of cilities on some four million hectares of land. emergency food imports which are likely to In addition, Rsl billion of short-term input absorb some U.S.8200 million. And there is yet loans have been earmarked for this emergency. another cost-the sharp depletion of the orig- In this manner it is anticipated that some of inal reserve stocks before the procurement of the lost ground in crop production will be re- 534 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-197 trieved in 1973 while at the same time addi- tons in 1961 to 2,260,000 tons in 1970-71 tional assets of a permanent nature will be during the same period the number of electri created, thereby reducing the proneness of some and diesel pump sets increased from 421,00, of the affected areas to similar situations in the to over 2.4 million; the number of tube well future. Much of this work is under way, but from 19,000 to 480,000, of tractors from 31,00 only time will tell the effectiveness of these to 117,000, and the area under improved va measures induced by the drought. rieties from 1.9 million to 15.4 million hectare! All these helped to raise output beyond wha could have been achieved even in favorabl Illusory Drought Consequences climatic conditions, lifting the trough of tota grain production by approximately 20 milliol In the midst of rampant pessimism generated tons even in a poor year like 1972. To the ex by the drought, two of its by-products are the tent that the Green Revolution makes for sta tendency to minimize the past achievements of bility via irrigation and for higher yields vi: the country's agricultural economy and, along its other techniques, its role is indispensable it with it, to treat the Green Revolution as if it any attempt to modernize Indian agriculture were a nonevent. Neither position is valid. One should remember also that, as already in Precisely because 1972 was a "Year of Trouble," dicated, the process of modernization ha a brief look at the past record on both scores is spread to other walks of life; and in at least : in order. The fact that the overwhelming ma- few regions the Green Revolution has growt jority of the rural population still lives in abject into something bigger-a more complete rura poverty should not be taken to mean that what revolution. has been accomplished is in any sense insig- Much of this has tended to be forgotten it nificant. Even in conditions of traditional agri- the traumatic events of 1972, and it is not sur culture, between 1949-50 and 1964-65 the prising that the voices of the detractors of thi grain output of India increased from 55 to 89 Green Revolution have swelled into a chorus million tons. That half of it was a result of At this juncture it is important to note not wha expanded acreage and only half from higher the new technology failed to do but what it dic productivity does not invalidate the achieve- accomplish in a brief span of time. To begir ment. Clearly, what stands out is that the rural with and very importantly, there is the lion' economy was not one of stagnation even long share of the 9 million tons of buffer stock: before the advent of the new technology. The which came from the authentic Green Revolu more so with its advent, though admittedly tion areas. Without this contribution Indi, productivity has a long, long way to go before would have reaped starvation on an unprece agriculture ceases to be a gamble on the mon- dented scale. The procurement campaign of the soons. summer crop now under way has fallen fat The subject of the Green Revolution has short of the target. On the other hand, Punjat been repeatedly discussed in this space on and Haryana, the two states where the newN previous occasions; but, in the midst of decry- technology made its deepest penetration, are ing the effectiveness of the new agricultural the best performers, accounting for nearly 5C strategy, a few indicators may usefully be cited percent of what has been procured. Significantly once again. The outstanding one is that in enough, they did it mostly in rice, which coun- 1970-71 India attained a record crop of 108 trywide is in short supply this year. This i million tons; while wheat made the principal worth stressing because it points to a major and contribution, the new practices were making useful shift in the cropping pattern of these themselves felt in higher rice yields as well. states, due primarily to the new farm practices Since this resulted from a combination of good Punjab and Haryana have also had to contend climatic conditions and modern technology, a with their climatic problems and power short- better measure of the contribution of the ages, but their investments in irrigation and in technology is the veritable revolution in the other modern practices have sustained them utilization of inputs. Fertilizer consumption rather well in an unfavorable season. All thi (N+P+K2O) increased from 306,000 metric is in relation to the immediate food crisis, and The Rural Scene 535 these facts of life and other contributions noted as in the smaller areas with assured irrigation earlier cannot be overlooked. Moreover, the potential where b:g farmers with owned or denigration of the new technology on the borrowed capital have taken advantage of the ground that it is uneven, selective, income- combination of tube wells, improved seed, .disparity prone, and so forth has nothing to do fertilizer, and tractors. In the process they with the modern practices as such. The new struck it rich beyond their expectations; the techniques as techniques cannot be held re- rich became richer. And not only the rich have sponsible for a variety of imbalances such as benefited. In states like Punjab and Haryana, poor credit, minimal extension service and in- numerous small farmers, though by no means adequate farm labor wages, or for the fact that most of them, with owned holdings of 5 acres generally speaking economic necessity and so- and more of good land have also benefited from cial justice do not often ride in tandem. These the adoption of new practices. This said, there are essentially man-made issues of long stand- is no doubt that the gains of the Green Revo- ing. More to the point is that in the course of lution are distribu-ed differently with different a very few years the new technology has become categories of farmers, putting the small en- the turning point for what agriculture has al- trepreneurs at a disadvantage. ready achieved and for what it may attain in In the very same hub of rural transforma- the future. tion, the meek and the humble among the farm owners, mostly holders of 5 acres and less, have been more or less bypassed. In theory the new Green Revolution's Gainers and Losers technology is "neutral to scale," which means that it can be applied to any size of farm; and Accepting, therefore, that there is a techno- yields are a function only of inputs. In practice logical breakthrough in certain areas of Indian this does not often happen, the constraint being agriculture, the question may be raised as to mainly the lack of resources. For all the expan- how beneficial this has proved to be so far to sion of cooperative credit in recent years, its dis- the big farmers, small farmers, tenants, and tribution has always been weighted in favor of farm laborers. Numbers cannot be assigned the well-to-do rather than the weaker sections either to the size of these groups or to their of the farm community. Summing up the gains or losses in income terms. Nevertheless, gainers or losers among all the farm owners in within the areas affected by farm innovations, areas where the new practices predominate, the their respective positions can be ascertained if situation is abour like this: (a) More or less only in general terms. The point of departure all innovators have enjoyed considerable gains for an assessment of this kind is the admittedly in real income; (b) within the innovating existing dualism in Indian agriculture: the groups, proportionately larger gains have ac- small part of it (10 to 15 or more percent) that crued to the bigger farmers with larger land is irrigated, prospering, and progressive and and other resources; (c) the income disparities the remainder that is dry, poor, and stagnant have greatly widened between the innovator or what one writer calls the "two rural Indias."' and noninnovators; (d) even in the backward Both are conditioned by geography, nature of agricultural states with islands of improved land ownership, size of holdings, costly invest- technology, farmers have substantially bene- ments imposed by the new technology, and tfied; and (e) unequal access to credit is the much else already touched upon in a preceding principal reason why in typical regions of agri- paragraph. The predominance of "dry farm- cultural modernization so many small farmers ing" explains why vast parts of the country have fallen by the wayside. have nor been touched by the Green Revolu- As to whether in the decidedly innovative ion. In that sea of farmsteads, unequal income areas the landless farm laborers are gainers or distribution is non nearly as burning an issue losers, the picture at this stage of technology is tilted in their favor, even if only slightly. The new type of agriculture is labor intensive, em- 1. Ashok Thapar, "The Challenge to India," ploying more labor over a longer period of Times of India (August 15, 1972). time in the production of a larger output. 536 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 While the cost of living has risen sharply, so would like to get rid of tenants and resume the have wages, with farm labor gaining some land for self-cultivation, making use of the ground. But the technology is also potentially plentiful supply of hired labor combined with labor displacing, notably with the introduction a new array of modern equipment. The old of the combine thresher. With no mechaniza- practice, if not always successful, whereby ten-- tion policy to avert an unfavorable impact on ants are reduced to sharecroppers and eventu- rural employment in regions discussed here, in ally to landless workers is being accelerated as the years ahead the trend will shift from time- more of the bigger owners shift to the new saving to labor-saving devices; and the number technology. If anything, they are trying to lease of displaced laborers can only increase. This or buy more land to insure the fullest utiliza-. movement may slacken its pace from time to tion of tractors, pump sets, power threshers, time, as is the situation right now, but possibly reapers, and so forth. The tenants, therefore, sooner than later events might well begin to are the losers of the transformation from tradi- justify Nehru's lament against farm mechaniza- tional to modern agriculture. tion as a threat to the welfare of the landless farm hands. Assuming that as of now farm labor has not suffered from the impact of the Green Revolution, the outlook however is for Agricultural Prospects an overcrowded, competitive low wage farm market regardless of the scope of the new In the mid-1960s the authors of Famine 1975!2 technology. argued that India is doomed to starvation. Her Whether farm labor has gained, stood still, agricultural policies being allegedly what they or, as others contend, lost some ground, the were, from the standpoint of food sufficiency very important saving grace is the indirect she was past redemption. So much so, the au- multiplier effects on employment attributed to thors contended that "If other more deserving agricultural modernization. The new demand countries are to be 'saved' (through food aid had created new opportunities for goods and imports), India must be 'sacrificed'.": This services ranging from small-scale engineering dire prediction was followed by the introduc- industries and on through expanded activities tion of the new package of farm practices and among blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, brick their well-known attendant consequences. If in makers, leather workers, utensil makers, trans- 1972, however, the optimism of recent years porters, wholesalers, retailers, and many others. has given way to concern once again, the ex- This is the shock wave impact of increased planation lies in the time lag to capitalize on production and the prosperity it generates. scientific advances in a number of important That many of the beneficiaries are nonfarmers foodgrain and cash crops and in the drought or only speaks in favor of the broader implica- in the obviously great impact which climatic tions of the Green Revolution. In any assess- conditions still have on the productivity of un- ment, therefore, of whether labor has gained or irrigated semiarid areas which in better years lost under the aegis of the new technology, contribute over 40 percent of the country's these newly created employment opportunities food supply. While all this does not minimize must be taken into consideration, the progress made thus far, the eminent scien- If there is any segment of the rural popUla- tist Dr. D. M. Swaminathan calls attention to tion that has clearly lost out in the innovative the fact that "it would be self-deception to be- process, it is the tenants or sharecroppers. This lieve that a scientific breakthrough will auto- is particularly true in areas where agricultural iatically (emphasis added) result in a produc- transformation is a potent force. There, land tion revolution and that a production revolu- values have risen sharply and so have rentals- tion in agriculture will simultaneously result in from 50 percent to as high as 70 percent of the crop. Besides, unrestricted land control has never been more prized, and security of tenure 2. William Paddock and Paul Paddock, Famine and other rights in land a tenant might claim 1975! (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968). have been perceptibly weakened. The owners 3. Ibid., p. 218. The Rural Scene 537 a prosperity advance." In his view it would take lion hectares, or a sown area of 139 million concerted efforts in many directions (scientific, hectares, and a cropping intensity of 118 per- socioeconomic, educational, and "hard" political cent. The real hope lies in the irrigated acre- decisions) to bring that about. Meantime and age. As of recent date, the net and gross irri- in the light of the tasks ahead, the promising gated areas were 30 and 37 million hectares, lessons of recent experience are the watering- respectively. Out of the net irrigated area, 12, 4, down of the myths about the Indian peasant's 11, and 3 million hectares were irrigated by inertia and fatalism on the one hand and that canals, tanks, wells and tube wells, and other of technological stagnation on the other. methods, respectively. The potential irrigated The size of the task of feeding the rapidly area is estimated by the Irrigation Commission growing population of India is indeed im- at 82 million hectares, but the more immediate mense. The plan targets for 1973-74 and 1978- prospect is a total of 49 million hectares if all 79 are 115 million and 140 million tons the projects now in various stages of execution respectively. Looking farther ahead, the rela- are completed. The increased water availability tionship between population growth and food presupposes vastly improved water manage- needs tells its own target stories, varying with ment, soil research and conditions, and success- the estimates presented below. The 1971 census ful genetic manipulations of the yield poten- revealed a population of 548 million, 80 per- tials of various crops. cent of it living in rural areas. Total population Despite the fcrmidable enterprise that lies is estimated to reach 657 million by 1981, 703 ahead, Dr. Swaminathan is optimistic about million by 1985, and 864 million by the year meeting the food needs of India. He is aware 2000. These estimates are conservative in the of the still prevailing low yields in grain pro- sense that the annual rates of growth are as- duction (except wheat), animal husbandry, sumed to be 1.55 and 1.30 percent, respectively, and fisheries; he is equally aware of the gaps during 1981-91 and 1991-2000. Since so favor- between what has been accomplished in the able an impact of family planning programs is major crops in the experimental stations and in conjectural at best, by the year 2000 India may the field. Nevertheless, he concludes that "The have to feed a population of 900 million to one targets are not frightening, considering the billion. As against this, there are numbers of irrigated area we have and scope which exists foodgrain requirement projections based on a for moisture conservation and integrated land- variety of assumptions. According to the Plan- use planning." He does not discount the ever- ning Commission, by 1981 India would need present technical and scientific problems; but 168 million tons of cereals and 19 million tons with regard to Iniia's problem of problems, the of pulses. The cereal estimates of the Na- dry land problem, the encouraging signs lie tional Council of Applied Economic Research in the preliminary work of the All-India- (NCAER) are lower by 30 million tons. Finally, Coordinated Dry Land Farming Research there are the Working Group on Demand and Project; the small-scale but successful Indo- Supply projections of the National Commis- Canadian dry farming project at Hayatnagar sion on Agriculture with an estimated require- near Hyderabad:. the Central Arid Research ment of 228 million tons of grain and pulses Institute at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, concerned by A.D. 2000. Regardless of the acts of com- with management of desert soils; and perhaps mission and omission in all the estimates, agri- above all the newly created International Crop culture clearly has a long way to go to meet Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics requirements of such dimensions. Additionally, (ICRISAT) at Hyderabad. The thrust of all milk and meat production and the fish catch these is one of effective water harvesting and must be sharply raised. moisture conservation among small and mar- The foodgrain and cash crop expectations ginal farmers, most of them subject to well- are based on a total cropped area of 164 mil- known handicaps apart from being "dry." Part of the effort is the development of new cropping strategies and the exploitation of "the 4. M. S. Swaminathan, "Population and Food resilience which tropical and subtropical agri- Supply," Yojana (January 26, 1973). culture ... offers with regard to crop substitu- 538 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 tion." All this entails a generation of work, but success of a good many programs therefore Dr. Swaminathan's conclusion is that, as far as depends upon the revitalization of the pan- scientific application is concerned, it "offers chayats in the sense that responsibility for cheer and hope for striking a favorable balance carrying out local programs involves initiative between population growth and food supply at and action at the grass-roots level. The latter least till the end of this century, by which time cannot be effected by fiat, for in good measure we can expect a greater stability in population their success depends on the elimination of expansion."; cultural barriers replete with emotional and In trying to assess this optimistic picture, psychological snags. A close observer of the one must willy-nilly oscillate between favorable rural scene can see welcome signs of change, and unfavorable factors, hoping of course that but they are not sufficiently widespread to over- the former will prevail. The following pages come these barriers and their persistence alone are an attempt to do just that. To deal with may well inhibit implementation even in the the negative side first, the outlined potential presence of such reliable factors as physical in- is viewed against the elements which tend to puts and much else to go with them. hinder and slow down the implementation of Yet, there is another side to the picture on a desirable scheme. The optimistic anticipa- the face of which the outlook need not be as tions have been predicated on appropriate poli- agonizing as it can be made out to be. Renovative cies and their implementation at all political, policies and actions to maximize productivity economic, and organizational levels, and most and employment in agriculture and in activi- particularly at the district level, where the fate ties allied to it are not lacking. They have been of any rural undertaking is decided. Past ex- differently cataloged by different people, but perience cannot exclude the well-known "im- the critically important elements are these: (a) plementation gap" even if the purpose and widening the range of economic activities to general design of a particular measure might which the new and upcoming techniques are have left little to be wished for. A number of applicable; (b) development of rural industries agricultural endeavors like credit distribution, and agriculture-allied activities such as live- agrarian reforms, small farmer development stock breeding, dairying, and forestry; (c) im- agencies, drought-prone areas, and so forth proving the infrastructure facilities for credit, point, among other things, to this problem. extension, tenurial conditions, and marketing; This gap cannot be eliminated overnight and and (d) underlying most of this, more effective hence the caveat about executing with dispatch and quicker exploitation of the country's water the multifarious and admittedly difficult tasks resources. An aid to these is the favorable posi- that lie between anticipation and realization. tion of the fifth plan toward agriculture. The The hindrances to implementation are particu- latter is assured top priority with an outlay of larly pronounced at the village level where the Rs70 billion, or double that of the fourth plan. aim is not only increased production but bal- The promise of supplementary special funds anced development as well and where the need should work to the same end. As to the em- for people's active participation in decision- phasis on particular sectors of the agricultural making is indispensable. The record on this score economy, the "Approach to the Fifth Five Year is particularly poor though with many excep- Plan 1974-79" notes that, while the strategy tions to the contrary. The village panchayats or which fathered the Green Revolution "will con- local development bodies, having become tinue to receive attention" . . . it will be neces- largely political entities controlled by the well- sary to place stress on agricultural programs in to-do, whether for economic or social-caste rea- rainfed and other less promising areas." Useful sons, have tended to minimize the develop- though this may be, general propositions of mental and other needs of the weaker sections, this sort and generous funding do not always beginning with production and on through edu- make for effective programs and only perform- cation, health, nutrition, family planning, water ance will tell the story. There are, however, a supply, roads, electrification, and the like. The number of other factors, which also favor higher productivity and greater rural employ- 5. Ibid. ment. The Rural Scene 539 Science may well play, eventually, the role The future, like the past and present, holds out ascribed to it. What is often in the experi- hardly any promise that the country's industrial mental station is not always within the grasp and commercial development can absorb sig- of the farmer, but technical innovations are nificant numbers of the village poor. Only now more closely related to the ultimate bene- within agriculture with heightened produc- ficiaries than they were not many years back. tivity, greater employment, and improved ten- The new technology reflects it. The times when urial relations will one have to look for signs the peasantry had to be persuaded to shift to a of rural betterment.7 Failure, therefore, can be higher productivity plateau have, for the greater contemplated only at the risk of worse things part, changed. The lesson derived from the to come; in that event, all or most of the favor- Green Revolution that better farming stands able assumptions recited thus far would be for better living is now known among the writ in water. "outsiders" as well. This year's drought experi- Summing up, in an India which is changing, ence cannot but lead to a greater appreciation however slowly, it cannot be assumed that the that vulnerable farm areas must be made less debilitating elements are there to stay forever- so. The measures to modernize the rural econ- more regardless of where they make themselves omy are not novel; in one way or another most felt. Given the emergence of countervailing of them, though with gaping holes, are either factors on top of all that already stands for dealt with or are under active consideration. progressive agriculture, it is not inconceivable The country is not lacking in capable, am- that India may be able to feed its growing bitious, and energetic bureaucrats who may yet numbers-not always, to be sure, without the find the organizational keys to open many a aid of imports-while making at the same time door. And once again, with a stress on greater some dent in the mass poverty prevailing in productivity only, if the additional 15 to 20 the rural sector. Some of the favorable condi- million irrigated hectares which are expected tions cited may seem to the reader too in- to enter the picture upon the completion of tangible, more like an act of faith than well- projects already undertaken are indeed realized, supported evidence. This is conceded, but to the volume of output is bound to increase sig- one familiar with the Indian rural scene, espe- nificantly. This is not to speak of an expected cially with its compelling needs and aspirations overall rise in production from a rural economy which simply cannot be denied much longer, in general acquiring muscle. None of this im- the economist's facts and figures must also plies meeting all the targets or the dogma of make room for a measure of faith in a timely self-sufficiency. The latter in particular need intervention of benevolent political, economic, not be treated as sacrosanct so long as agri- and social forces. The immensity of the task of culture and the national economy as a whole feeding India's rapidly rising population and are buoyant. Last but not least, with the notable ameliorating the conditions of the poor may exception of agrarian reforms where slogans set indeed seem forbidding in a country with so the tone, most of the other objectives noted complex and varied an agricultural economy above are conceptually realistic; if they fail of and rural society, but who is there to say that successful resolution, it will be only because the prospect is not feasible if the will is there? science, administrative-organizational arrange- Many of the observations recounted thus far ments, and policies to unleash rural energies lie in the future and are admittedly speculative. fall below the mark. This cannot be excluded, Less so is the case of two important issues, but the time is fast approaching when failure will be inadmissible. The reasons are twofold. 7. "At the present pace of industrialization, any mass-scle transfer of the labor force from agricul- 6. In connection with higher production, we as- ture to non-agricaltural sectors is ruled out. The sume that it would not take all the farmers to achieve growing labor force in agriculture has to be provided the objective and that social justice and equitable in- with fuller employment within agriculture. A redis- come distribution may not necessarily be one of its tributive land reform derives its basic rationale from outcomes. This matter has been treated in preceding this consideration." "Approach to the Fifth Plan, economic reports. 1974/79," p. 5. 540 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 now, as in the recent past, much in the lime- implement the provisions lead to this conClu- light. One is the new land ceiling round; the sion. On the face of it, the guidelines for the other is the old and familiar Small Farmers new ceiling round are better than what had Development Agency and other allied schemes preceded them for the following reasons: The dealing with the rehabilitation of one of the drastic curtailment of permissible land reten poorer sections of the farm community. tion, acceptance of the family unit as a base for ceiling determination, curtailment of illegal land transactions by retrospective application of New Land Ceiling Round the ceiling, and the low price of land to the intended recipients. For all this and for other Not every subject dealt with in last year's an- considerations, the effort appears to be on the nual agricultural review is repeated, but the plus side. But there is another, less promising, new land ceiling round is one of the two that side to the story; a few examples will suffice. cannot be ignored. Until early 1972, ceilings on The retrospective date of January 24, 1971, land ownership for redistribution among the is not a serious deterrent to illegal land trans- landless had been a dead issue because all legis- actions. In practice, the land illegally transferred lative enactments in the past decade or more cannot be recovered. The effectiveness of a were failures. But ever since the Congress Party's family as the holding unit has been gravely victories in 1971 and 1972, coupled with the eroded by splitting the family unit into two promises of land to the needy, the ceiling issue parts, both of which are entitled to separate has been coming to a head once again. After ceiling retentions; the net result will be a de- months of the bitterest political controversy in cline in potential land availability. Compensa- the history of Indian agrarian reform, the battle tion for the acquired land might, in effect, was resolved on July 22, 1972, when national border on confiscation; and as economic men guidelines of a new ceiling program were the owners with surplus land can be expected ushered in. In brief, the main provisions are to behave accordingly-that is, resist the im- these: (a) An owner can retain a maximum of plementation of the ceiling reform in every 18 acres of double-cropped perennially irri- possible way. They are great practitioners of gated land or 27 acres of single-cropped land this art, as evidenced by the failure of all previ- or 54 acres of all other types of land; (b) the ous ceiling enactments. The most basic provi- ceiling applies to the family as a unit of five sion of the new legislation deals with "peren- rather than, as in the past, to individual holders; nially irrigated land or irrigated land capable (c) "major" children (over 18 years) are of growing two crops." The controlling word treated as separate units, and each one of them is 'perennial," which means water all the year is entitled to hold land not exceeding the gov- round or at least ten months of the year. It erning ceiling for a family of five; (d ) January implies a sufficiency of water for two crops, 24, 1971, is the effective (retroactive) date for and this is not common even in the best- the purpose of ceiling implementation; finally, irrigated state of Punjab. It will take some (e) compensation for the surplus land to be proving that each irrigated acre is perennially distributed "should be fixed (by the states) irrigated, a feat very difficult to perform. But well below the market value of the property so even if the enumerated handicaps did not exist, that it is within the paying capacity of the new implementation would be very difficult if not allottees . . . and in a manner that it will be no impossible because of the absence of an organi- financial burden on the central and state gov- zational structure and an administrative set-up. ernments." This was raised by way of a question at the To date most states have enacted new ceiling very highest level of government, but there is legislation, but it is highly questionable if they so far no evidence of any answer to meet it. will be or can be implemented in a way that The chances are that, as in the past, responsi- would result in a large pool of newly surplus bility for the brunt of the effort will continue land earmarked for distribution. An examina- to rest with the revenue departments. Their tion of the guidelines outlined above and the primary responsibility is to collect revenue absence of an administrative organization to rather than attend to very complex reform The Rural Scene 541 chores. More difficult is the situation at local trend and leaving our of consideration waste administrative levels where the reform must land vested in the states, the surplus is not be enforced if it is to be enforced at all. Apart likely to be many times more than that secured from political and caste considerations which under the past ceiling enactments. Moreover, m~otivate local officials in their essentially anti- in most instances, the land that finds its way reform attitudes, there is the additional and into the hands of future beneficiaries will be well-known drawback once again called to relatively poor marginal land. attention at the highest level of government, None of the above inveighs against a ceil- namely, that many states do nor have the basic ing program. Any rmeaningful reform without l,and records and the collateral information it is a misnomer, while its presence should be necessary for the implementation of an effec- one of the main guarantees of the success of an tive land ceiling policy. This explains the agrarian reform in its broadest sense. The diffi- anachronism that, while state after state con- culty with the new ceiling round is the ago- tinues to enact new ceiling laws, hardly any of nizing negativism implicit in it; ditto when them has taken the trouble to put their records the ceiling idea as5umes the aspect of a cure- in order and to find out how much surplus land all without the requisite underpinnings in might be available for distribution, sight. In these circumstances, an exaggerated Much else could be added to this list of priority is attached to the land ceiling in the problems standing in the way of well- absence of equal concern about such funda- formulated laws and enforcement. For the mo- mentals as the absE!nce of the recorded rights ment, let it be noted that the new ceiling round of tenants, the largely absent security of tenure, will in the end be judged not by the levels at high rentals, the vetry questionable practice of which ceilings are fixed but by how much or land resumption for "personal cultivation," little land they will generate for redistribution, sharecropping and its invidious effects, ex- The range of permissible retention currently ploitative farm-labor wages in most instances, prescribed is at most half of that of the former and a number of other items adversely affecting ceiling limits. The presumption is that it should the weaker rural s;ections. All these are vital yield a much greater surplus than the actual matters and are part of a minimum agrarian distribution of a million-plus acres of poor reform which should be part and parcel of a land during the first ceiling round, as against ceiling program. The separation of the two, as a variously estimated anticipation ranging be- if they were not interrelated, does not auger tween 37 to 40 million acres. This presumption, well for either one and certainly not for the however, has little validity, for the lessons of unfinished business relating to the issues just the past experience amply demonstrate that raised. The prosp(ct therefore is for diminish- such estimates and fulfillment are worlds apart. ing the ranks of tenants and sharecroppers and There are occasional state news items which adding to the ranks of agricultural laborers, a suggest rather low surplus land expectations. condition to be avoided at all costs. This is neither surprising nor encouraging. If these straws in the wind are indicative of a * * 542 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 60. Agrarian Reform a' la Punjab Toward the end of June 1973, Indian newspapers broke the story of a scandal in the distribution of state-owned lands in the Punjab, where many officials grabbed, at low prices, land intended for the poor. This is Ladejinsky's vivid report of September 17 to the World Bank of that incident. ". . . if there is any lesson to be learned from this episode," he wrote, "it is the same old lesson: The implementation of agrarian reforms in India cannot be carried out so long as many in authoritative positions are essentially antireformist in outlook and practice." "For one fairly familiar with the shenanigans that go into writing and yet unwriting land reform programs, the Punjab caper need shock no one; it is just a 'wrinkle,' a grotesque one to be sure, in the long chain of evasions which all lead to the familiar end ... another unwelcome reminder of the enduring malaise of Indian agrarian reformism." Could a commentary be more succinct, more telling, than this! Introduction was indeed grabbed by a number of high and mighty through collusive transactions, misuse IN THE HISTORY OF AGRARIAN reform in India, of official power, and intimidation of the poor, taking away land from the poor farmers by the and connived in by those who are supposed to rich farmers is an old story carried over into uphold the law. This note tells the story in postindependence reform days. The notorious some detail; and, if there is any lesson to be "voluntary surrenders" of land by tenants in learned from this episode, it is the same old favor of their owners, squeezing the tenants off lesson: The implementation of agrarian re- the land as a by-product of land consolidation forms in India cannot be carried out so long as or loss of any hold on land by the poor through many in authoritative positions are essentially a variety of other dubious measures-all these antireformist in outlook and practice. and much else have not helped the reforms to prosper. But it remained for Punjab (and prob- ably not only Punjab) to add another wrinkle, Historical Background namely, grabbing state-owned land intended for the landless and harijans-the poorest of It is difficult to say which of the Indian states the poor-by prominent politicians and gov- deserves mention as the worst reform per- ernment officials at low prices. How such land former. With very few exceptions they were passed into such hands improperly is still to be equally remiss in this respect, but a bit of his- determined, but the fact itself is not disputed. tory should make clear why Punjab is one of When the news broke in late June, the press the top recalcitrants and why an opportunity greeted it with such eye-catching headlines as to grab land earmarked for the poor becomes "Exposure of Land Grab in Punjab," "Illegal Punjab. Land Deals in Punjab: Top Public Men in- Prior to the enactment of the Punjab Se- volved," "Many Punjab vips accused of Illegal curity of Land Farmers Act of 1953, the num- Land Grab," "Punjab Ministers, Speaker Indicted ber of tenants or semitenants was estimated at for Land Grab," "When Thieves Fall Out," 583,000. The act provided for a number of "Search for More Land-Grabbers," and so on. measures to strengthen the position of the ten- This was not a storm in a teacup or an event antry, including a reduction in rent from fifty- blown out of proportion by the press. Land fifty to a maximum of one-third of the crop. Agrarian Reform c la Punjab 543 But this provision, like security of tenure, ceil- The Evacuee Land Episode ings on holdings, and so forth had been so emasculated that the very title of the act is The genesis of the evacuee land episode goes one of the misnomers of the agrarian reform back to the partirion of the country and the of India. The result was twofold: large-scale creation of Pakistan. After the rehabilitation ejection of tenants by owners on the ground of the refugees from Pakistan on land left be- of land resumption for self-cultivation and the hind by the Punjabi Muslim refugees, the gov- persistence of traditional rental arrangements ernment of India inherited a surplus of evacuee on the remaining tenanted holdings. No data on land. On June 3, 1961, the union government ejections are available, but the following tells transferred this land of varied quality to the something of its magnitude, though the data state government of Punjab. The acreage and are probably only approximations. Thus we price of such land were as follows: 80,000 acres read: at Rs495 per acre, 100,000 acres as Rs100 per The law regarding security of tenure appears acre, and 111,000 acres at Rs5 per acre. This to be on the whole somewhat illusory. This came to be known as the Package Deal of is supported by the fact that the number of 1961; but prior to that on February 2, 1960, tenants in existence in the Punjab area at the central government also transferred to Pun- the time when the Punjab Security of Land jab 47,000 acres of "inferior evacuee land" at Tenure Act was amended in 1955 has Rs5 per acre and 36,000 acres of a slightly greatly decreased. From the information better grade at R!;100 per acre-in all, 374,000 supplied by the State Government on March acres. In transfer-ing this land at prices con- siderably below t'neir market value, it was un- 30, 1955, it appears that the total number y of tenants including renants-cum-owners was derstood that it would be eventually distributed 583,400 ... From the information supplied among the generally landless and landless by the Punjab Government recently (1964) harijans. For almost four years the Punjab govern- it appears that the total number of tenants who were holding land at the commence- inent had made no move about the newly ac- ment of the act and are still holding land quired land. When it finally bestirred itself as tenants is 80,250. It seems difficult to ac- into action in 1964, the land was not dis- count for the large difference between those tributed among the two mentioned groups; in- twot fourhe stead, an undetermined acreage was finding its two figures.' way into the hands of "unauthorized" persons. Actually, it is not so difficult. It is an open This did not go unobserved and, as complaints secret that the difference between 563,400 and about such land transfers kept on mounting, on 80,250 is largely due to out-and-out ejections, July 4, 1972, the governor of Punjab, with the "voluntary" surrenders, or the transfer of ten- approval of the government of Punjab, issued ants to the status of sharecroppers or agricul- an executive order appointing an Enquiry Com- tural laborers. Since 1964, particularly since the mittee "to probe into the setting up of sizable advance of the Green Revolution, the situation agricultural farms on evacuee land by officers, is nothing if not worse; what little tenanted their relatives, arid other influential public men. land remains, rentals have gone up to 70 to 80 The immediate result of that order was the percent in favor of the owners and security of setting up of the Harchard Singh Committee tenure is but pious hope. This is the back- under the chairmanship of Harchard Singh, ground before and after the agricultural techno- representing the Congress Party in the state as- logical advances of Punjab, and it is not sur- sembly. Of the six other members, all of the prising that in this kind of a reform climate state assembly, four represented Congress, one the episode about to be recounted can find a was the leader of the opposition, and one mem- congenial place there. ber of the Communist Party (India). The con- mittee's terms of reference were: to find out how the land was acquired-whether through 1. Planning Commission, "Implementation of auction, illegal deals, or by unauthorized occu- Land Reforms" (August 1966), p. 118. pation-the extent and value of the acquisition, 544 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 the role of the officials concerned, losses sus- bers and former members of the Punjab State tained by the state, and so forth. The committee Legislative Assembly; and a former Akala did not have an easy time delving into these party minister. Even the most radical spokes- problems, and the results of the inquiry are far men for the downtrodden could not withstand from complete. This is explained by the fact temptation, for prominent among the accused that the only useful data were provided by the is a leader of the Communist Party (Marxist), rehabilitation department of the Punjab Kisan Punjab education secretary, some senior police Sabha (peasant organization); the other sources officials, and several provincial civil service tapped by the committee remained totally unre- officers. In every instance cited land was ac- sponsive. The public notice failed to evince quired in the names of a retinue of relatives, any interest.2 A paltry thirty complaints, in- obliging tenants, and occasionally in the names cluding two oral complaints, were received, out of equally obliging landless or harijans. These of which hardly eight were relevant. Similarly, bogus participants were to cover up the fact the legislators and most of the political organi- that this reform in reverse was indulged in by zations remained indifferent.' This may explain members of the very elite of Punjab society, why the committee has not heard "the officers, individuals in commanding political positions, public men, and others against whom com- lawmakers, upholders of law, or molders of plaints had been received." It also served as a public opinion. Coupled with this is that these basis for the accusation leveled against the pillars of society came into landed properties committee later on that it engaged in an ex not meant for them not only cheaply but mostly parte investigation. Notwithstanding these with money borrowed from government agen- limitations, the committee gathered enough in- cies on favorable terms. formation to justify its effort. When after much The committee examined 126 cases of which delay its findings were made public on June 61 were given a clean bill of health, mainly 26 of this year, it created a political storm in because the individuals involved purchased land Punjab. In a congress-ruled state this affair tip to the prescribed limnit of 5 standard' or 10 added no laurels to the party, and, as will be ordinary acres and whose total holdings fell pointed out elsewhere, at least one eminent short of 17.5 acres; this vas the limit adopted member of congress turned into a source of by the committee for a "sizable" farm. Among considerable embarrassment for the congress the buyers there were some scheduled castes high command. It also provided extra sling- (harijans) government employees who were fuls of arrows for all those who view with pro- permitted to purchase land at "restricted auc- found cynism the activities of the ruling elite. tions." The latter entitled the purchaser to bor- Two reasons explain the political storm and row money from the revenue department, re- scandal. The first one is the evidence of flagrant paying it on an installment basis. As a matter misuse of authority and probity in disposing of of fact, this privilege was enjoyed by the rich the evacuee land. The second and immediately purchasers as well. The number of scheduled attention-calling reason is the all-star cast of caste employee buyers was small, but they com- characters who participated in these question- ported themselves no better than the elite able deals. The committee named such dramatis buyers. They, too, followed the crowd, buying personae as the state agricultural minister, num- land in several names, real or fictitious; and ber two cabinet member, and a spoken-of their farms were also "mostly one-man shows... candidate for chief ministership; the assembly Nearly all of them have also become real land- speaker; the minister of development; the lords and even behave as such, with the result parliamentary secretary; Congress Mps; mem- that the local population is more sick of them and their behavior.' 2. The committee invited complaints from the public and political organizations through a notice published three times in all leading English, Urdu, 4. A "standard acre" is the measure against which Hindi, and Punjabi newspapers of the state after an comparable values can be assigned to different classes interval of 15 days. of land with different deficiencies and productivities. 3. "The Harchard Singh Committee Report," p. 5. "The Harchard Singh Committee Report," p. 15. 18. Agrarian Reform a la Punjab 545 The committee's attention centered, how- perhaps above all due to the general rise of ever, not so much on these buyers as on the land values throughout Punjab. The issue, how- prominent members of the officialdom and ever, is not the increase in the value of such politicians with appetites for large holdings at properties between then (1964-66) and six to low prices. A few cases illustrate the point. seven years later. The issue is that the pur- Mr. A and his relatives acquired 250 acres at a chasers had no right to buy such "sizeable" acre- cost of Rs44,590, the current value of that land age and that the state government of Punjab being Rs998,000; Mr. B and his relatives ac- disregarded the original purpose of the evacuee quired 200 acres at a cost of Rs25,310, current land. The method of acquiring the land was value of that land being Rs716,000; Mr. C and largely through open auction, although it didn't his relatives acquired 190 acres at a cost of differ in essence from the "restricted auction." Rs37,318, current value estimated at Rs752,000; Every auction was subject to a "reserve" price and to cite a relatively minor acquisition, Mr. D fixed by the government of the last two years' and his relatives acquired 62 acres at Rsl5,000, average, but as the committee pointed out "the current estimated value being Rs250,000. The 'reserve' prices fixed by the government were extent to which relatives come into the picture very low. These prices were fixed by them as is shown in one of the cases examined by the far back as 1961-62 and have hitherto re- committee; it is possibly an extreme but never- mained unchanged despite the sharp rise in the theless illuminating variation on the same prices of land all over the state." In theory, the theme. The real buyer and owner, a member of poor harijan could compete for the auctioned the Punjab civil service, acquired 13 acres; but land as well as the well-off politicians and the at the same time he also acquired land in the well-placed officials. Predictably, this was not names of his wife, father, brother, sister-in-law, the practice because: son of sister-in-law, brother-in-law, son of The above sales suffered from numerous brother-in-law, mother-in-law, servant,l aunt' defects (many of a criminal nature) . . . father-in-law, These persons, men with means as they are other sister-in-law. Altogether he bought in his hes pn , en wtheanso tere, name and in the name of twelve others 129 had an edge over the poor tillers, who couldn't mobilize requisite resources to com- acres at a cost of Rs60,000 at the current price q estimated at Rs515,000. This case has many pt ihte.Ee tews,te a t athe goodwill and patronage of the auctioning ramifications too complicated to unravel even for a Philadelphia lawyer. This much, however, officers on their side. As a result, the poor is worth mentioning, as just another example and needy persons, depending upon agricul- of what a difficult time agrarian reformism has ture alone, had been deprived of the oppor- in Punjab-and in other states. Only with one tunity of purchasing these lands and such exception do the purchasers reside on the land. actua lae of lanatweredcu For the management of this land, the owner pying the same, of course unauthorizedly, oranized agcooperativ ochiet, "the Prp were uprooted. This was a tragic outcome organized a cooperative society, "The Partap of the policy of open auctions. It frustrated Cooperative Farm Society Ltd.," presided over the cherished ideology of "land for landless by him. This society is pure fiction; it couldn't tillers.""h be legally registered for the simple reason that its membership was made up of a motley crowd The acquisitions, as noted earlier, were of nonfarm resident shopkeepers, government made largely under a system adopted in 1964. employees, and whatnot. The best that can be The above quotation makes quite clear what said for it is that it is probably no worse than was wrong with the sales. The obvious, too, many other so-called farm cooperative societies should be added: the familiar pattern of ill- created solely to evade the tenancy and ceiling considered governmental policy, administrative provisions of the agrarian reform. bungling, and misuse of authority and influ- This land, as the land in all other instances ence by politicians and civil servants. For ex- similarly acquired, was of poor grade and had risen in value partly because the original price was very low, partly due to improvements, and 6. Ibid., pp. 13 and 71. 546 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 ample, the basic instruction relating to the sale numerous individuals. In the instance discussed of land makes no reference to the original in- here, they numbered twenty-six. The actual tention to turn such land over for the benefit occupiers were two, one of them superintendent of the landless. This was a crucial omission of police; the names of all other alleged occu- which hardly calls for comment. Nor did the pants entered into the revenue records "were instruction clarify that only the head of a fake." This particular occupation has led to a family could purchase land, debarring all im- great deal of opposition on the part of the local mediate family members, distant relatives, and population and a few murders. It is for this all others willing or induced to help augment reason that the cultivation of this land par- the purchases of the head of the family; hence takes of a demonstration of strong-arm meas- the subversion of the 5-acre limit. Bidding by ures. Thus, "At the time of inspection 176 acres proxy was not permitted but pra,.-:ed just the of land were under wheat. The committee was same; auctions were not competitive, which is told that A and B bring about 100 persons to say that they were generally rigged. Many armed with deadly weapons for sowing the of the acquisitioners also violated the provision crop every year so that there should be no that they could not resell, transfer, or mortgage opposition from the local population. Simi- the purchased land till the final payment of larly, they bring this many men for harvesting loans, with interest, or till the expiry of ten the crop." It is this picture that moved the years from the date of purchase, whichever committee to this comment: was later. Actually, a number of them disre- These are the officers and public men who garded this provision, disposed of the land at have taken the law in their own hands; mis- exorbitant prices, and in the process make used their authority and influence and have huge profits by making meager or no invest- ment at all." Not all of them struck it as rich occupied large areas by errorising the local as the father of an important politician. He is population, forcibly evicting the existing tenants and occupants, in collusion with reported to have bought 500 acres of evacuee police and filurvns sn The loca land at Rs25,000 and subsequently sold a third police and field revenues staff. The local of it at Rs300,000. Not unexpectedly, the population is so scared of them, particularly of the officers, that they were not willing to process of purchase and sale was often ac- telheruhotemmbsofheC - companied by the eviction of tenants or small tell the truth to the members of the Co-m farmers who were squatters on the land. One uipiee when they But the farms set will never know the number of such dispos- up by some of them. But it should nor be willnevr kow te nmbe of uchdisos- difficult for the Government to find our the sessed, but in some districts the eviction com- . . t . i "were of a serious nature." correct position, provided probe in each paints wer of acri nature." case is entrusted to an upright and non- Apart from the acquiring of land through sprnofie. auctions, some of the evacuee land was occu- pied by persons without authorization to do so. The patwaris, or village chiefs, abetted this or The occupants were of two types: the landless any other category of land grabbers by falsi- squatting on a few acres and people of high fying the village records. It is the committee's official and public standing "who had occu- considered view that "the most unscrupulous pied large chunks of land and had set up semi- accomplice" of illegal land acquisitions was mechanized farms." Of ten such cases listed by the village patwari. This is a very familiar the committee, the unauthorized occupation comment, for what holds for Punjab is equally ranges from a high of 296 to a low of 26 acres, true of the dubious activities of many patwaris and most of them paying the government in other states. In the light of the above, the neither rent nor revenue. The committee was words of the committee that "Most of the offi- particularly ired by the occupants of the 296 cers and public men had exploited these in- acres cultivating the land for the past six to herent defects to the best of their advantage" seven years "without payment of even a single are not surprising. Instructions from the reha- penny to the government." As in the case of auction buying, unauthorized occupation on a fairly large scale is concealed in the name of 7. Ibid., pp. 24-25. Agrarian Reform a la Punjab 547 bilitation department issued in September 1966 will be tested in courts of law. At best these to eliminate some of the defects came too late, will be protracted a1airs, and one shouldn't bet for the land acquisitions boom was tapering his bottom dollar that the courts would neces- off. Additionally, the committee makes it quite sarily uphold the committee's recommenda- tlear that the instructions would have been of tions. The committee is cognizant of this and no avail because they could have been easily recommends instead the framing of suitable evaded with the help of local authorities. This legislation "which could bring the past cases is, of course, not new; nor are the kind of deals within its ambit." The answer to this could be exposed by the committee uniquely Punjabi. "yes" or "no," the reason being that there are CiGiven the structure of Indian society, particu- indications that political considerations are al- larly in the rural areas, the rich and influential ready inducing the government of Punjab to can get away with a great deal of conceivable deal with these recommendations in its own misdemeanor. far less drastic way than the committee would. As to the second question, the answer is any- thing but clear. Although a couple of officials Committee Recommendations have elected to resign since the publication of the report, it doesn't follow that others simi- Proceeding from the general to the particular, larly involved will act accordingly or that their the committee's limited probe leaves no doubt professional standing will be seriously affected. about "a great deal of conceivable misde- If nothing else, severe penalties could very well meanor" committed in Punjab in disposing of upset the customary norm of a goodly number the evacuee land. This in turn raises three ques- of public officials doing business with the pub- tions: Will the accused individuals be com- lic. Besides, the unexpected political exonera- pelled to part with their ill-gotten properties? tion of three important personages accused by Will the officials who connived in the irregular the committee as land grabbers would appear procedures be penalized for their conduct? to favor the relatively subordinate officials in Third, will the committee's effort as a whole a final accounting. For these reasons, the rec- have a salutory effect on legislative enactments ommendation that the government of Punjab bearing on land problems, enforcement, and should "evolve a suitable quasi-judicial hier- the general conduct of politicians and high archy with statutory powers" to deal with the and low officials inevitably involved in such offending officials doesn't seem to carry much issues? Recent press news items provide a po- force. The answer to the third question hinges litical reminder that the committee report may on the validity of the answers to the first two. not fare well and similarly the answers one It is true that thc immediate effect of the re- might have anticipated to the raised ques- lease of the committee report created a sense tions. But before these matters are touched of profound unease among all manner of upon, it might be well to summarize the tenta- politicians, important officials, and the "neo- tive answers to the questions in conjunction feudalists," as the report refers to them. But with the principal committee recommendations little more than a month later it begins to look and the nature of the committee itself. as if they might somehow weather the storm, As to the first question, the committee al- and political and professional conduct hardly ready rendered its judgment by recommending changed. Of course, the government of Punjab that the government of Punjab should set aside professes to pursue action against tainted offi- many of the sales or in a number of instances cials and nonofficials to the "logical end," but the defective purchases be brought to the atten- its outcome is one of uncertainty. tion of the government for further considera- In the language of the committee, "the gov- tion. It also recommended disciplinary meas- ernment should become sadder and wiser from ures for the individuals who participated in the mistakes committed in the past." This refer- assisting the owners in acquiring those proper- ence is above all with an eye to the disposal ties. But the committee is not a judicial body, of the remaining evacuee land, which the com- and it is a reasonable presumption that the mittee estimates at 150,000 acres or so. This recommendation which hurt the owners most figure is questionable because the committee 548 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 dealt with only a limited number of individuals the committee are the minister of agriculture, who bought land at various auctions or occu- the parliamentary secretary, and the general pied land without authorization. The total acre- secretary of the Punjab congress. All three age thus sold or occupied is yet to be deter- resigned their offices immediately upon the mined, following which the remainder can be publication of the committee report. Since theA flushed out. But the main point of it all is that the chief minister exonerated them of any a fairly sizable acreage is available for dis- wrong-doing without subjecting their cases to tribution and that only the poorest landless a judicial review; in fact, he did so almost be- should be entitled to it. For this purpose, the fore the ink of the report was dry. Some ob- committee recommends abolition of the auc- servers contend that he acted upon highef tion system, distribution by allotment, at the advice on the alleged ground that no person same time reducing the 5 standard or 10 ordi- should be penalized for taking advantage of nary allocation rate so as to benefit a greater the flaws in a land policy. Apocryphal or not, number of applicants depending on agriculture rehabilitation was granted and the land the for their living. To the same end, the commit- committee claims they acquired improperly tee would like to see all the unauthorized land will probably remain with them. Another likely occupations by officials and rich and influential consequence is that, if the principals are given persons retrieved, thereby augmenting the land a clean chit, why should the book be thrown pool earmarked for distribution. The same at some of the subordinate officials who were should apply to the land that might be re- doing only the bidding of their superiors? trieved through the "de-grabbing" process. But it is the speaker of the assembly, ac- Mindful of the importance of correct record cused by the committee of buying 90 acres of of rights in land, the obvious recommendation evacuee land in the name of his relatives and is to correct the wrongs committed by the occupying without authorization an additional patwaris. The committee takes note of the fact 10 acres of land, who became the real politico- that there are many more cases of illegal acqui- dramatic element in this affair. He was neither sition of land than it had been able to uncover, willing to resign pleading not guilty, nor was It therefore urges the government of Punjab the chief minister evidently in a position or "to take suitable steps to evolve a proper ma- willing to give him a clean bill of health. It chinery to detect all such cases and to deal with remained for the congress high command, the same mercilessly." Some of the recom- including the prime minister, the congress mendations call for legislative enactments and president, the foreign minister-most promi- some for direct action of the government of nent in the inner circles in Punjab congress- Punjab. The government is reportedly setting and the home minister to settle the case of the a "suitable machinery" to "process" the com- speaker. The union minister of justice is re- mittee's report and for "follow-up action"; ported to have examined the case, found the what this might yield remains to be seen. Run- speaker's land purchases both improper and ning ahead of the fast developing final aspect of illegal, so reported to the high command, the episode, it is not certain that the govern- whereupon the home minister advised the ment of Punjab has set its heart on a de- speaker to resign for the good of congress grabbing process. It is not excluded that, under unity and as a demonstration of high standard the impact of events described here, the re- of public conduct. However, this was not to mainder of the evacuee land will be distributed be, the speaker insisting on exoneration. And among the needy; but what had taken place so so to ease the interparty factional pressures far is surely not the first demonstration of and recriminations within the Punjab congress Punjab's unconcern about land for the poor. and to refurbish the party's tarnished image, a truly Solomon-like solution emerged: simul- taneous exoneration and resignation. When Politics and the Land Grab asked of the home minister why the speaker should resign if he is exonerated, which is to This skepticism is based on fairly solid political say not guilty, the answer was that no legal evidence. Among the land grabbers cited by questions were involved but only propriety; Agrarian Reform d la Punjab 549 and, as if to clear up matters altogether, he ment from taking steps to take back the land." further stated that "certain things are for rea- The final outcome is yet to be gauged, for sons not mentioned." Regardless of what lies promise and performance in respect to land behind this cryptic statement, the worst of the issues have seldom ridden in tandem. If they -political crisis has been patched up. The com- do this time, they will put an end to the strong mittee report, limited though it is in scope as contention in certain circles that the effort of far as finding culprits is concerned, badly un- the Harchard Singh Committee is just another nerved the leading landed members of the nonevent. congress and Akali (opposition) parties. They are breathing easier now. Whatever the future political consequences, the immediate fallout Conclusion of the political turmoil created by the land grab revelations can be dealt with at a more The results of the committee's probe raise yet leisurely pace. another question: Is Punjab really unique in At this point it no longer matters whether disposing of state-owned land that leaves so the speaker has truly gotten a clean chit in ex- much to be desired? In the wake of the Punjab change for his resignation or whether the three events, the land reform division of the Ministry other participants cleared by the chief minister of Agriculture has sent out a round robin in- was a political act, an act of friendship or influ- quiry to all states about the handling of their ence along the corridors of power, or an state-owned land. To date no reply has been honestly considered view that they were not received, and if and when received no state is guilty as charged. What matters is the ambigu- likely to admit to any improprieties in dis- ous position of the committee, particularly with posing of it. Unofficially, land grabbing has respect either to de-grabbing of the land or been revealed in Uttar Pradesh, although not administrative decisions the government might exactly as in Punjab. There the harijans re- take in all cases the committee referred to it. ceived some land vested in the state, but the The assertion by the home minister that the largest share of it is reported to have gravi- solution of the speaker's problem did not tated into the hands of those who needed it amount to a censure of the Harchard Singh least." Regardless what other states reveal or Committee is not altogether reassuring. The don't reveal, one cannot but agree with the fact is' that the hostility of many members of following: the state assembly toward the committee is considerable, and many a noninvolved influ- Every state Government must, in the con- ential Punjabi probably shares this attitude. text of the Punjab Committee's report, put Nevertheless, politics and hostile attitudes aside, the following questions to themselves and v find the true answers. How many influential the committee served a good purpose mn that the remainder of the evacuee land will be persons in each state, including politicians, handled with greater care and circumspection. officials and businessmen and others, have Whether its recommendations about setting bought big chunks of land over the years? aside many of the auction sales will be accepted How many of them have employed illegal by the government is less certain. True, this is or unfair methDds for the purpose? To what said in the face of the chief minister's state- extent have loopholes in the land ceiling - laws been taken advantage of, obviously ment that his government was trying to deter- . g , y mine whether to enact appropriate legislation with the connivance of the bureaucracy? or promulgate executive ordinances to take Was black money involved in any of these back the land which had allegedly been land deals, and if so, how much in each "grabbed." In the meantime, an official com- mittee has been appointed to examine this question. Reassuringly, but it would be sur- 8. "Legal Position about Land Grab under Study," The Sunday Stand6:rd (September 8, 1973). prising if otherwise, the chief minister asserted 9. S. C. Scala, "UP Harijans Deprived of Land that "neither the Center nor the Congress Reform Benefits," The Times of India (September High Command had barred the State Govern- 13, 1973). 550 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 state? Even if the technical requirements of the elusive "political will." How then is an the law of the land were satisfied, how many agrarian reform to take place, a reform how- of such transactions conform to the norms ever mild, to suit the palate of those who of propriety? The last question is impor- could share in minimal yet basic-rights in their tant, for, as the Punjab Committee has land, not to speak of actually parting witll pointed out, the impropriety involved in some? We have no answer to offer; only a politicians and bureaucrats purchasing land sovereign state bent on carrying out its prom- to grow rich at the cost of the poor cannot ises can provide a satisfactory answer. be overlooked, even if nothing illegal is For one fairly familiar with the shenanigans found in the transactions."' that go into writing and yet unwriting land re- These questions generated by the Punjab form programs, the Punjab caper need shock episode have bearing on the general problem of no one; it is just a "wrinkle, a grotesque one agrarian reform in and out of Punjab. It has to be sure, in the long chain of evasions which been pointed out earlier that Punjab is not all lead to the familiar end. just the same, it is known for its proreform proclivities. Essen- another unwelcome reminder of the enduring malaise of Indian agrarian reformism. But in tially the same holds for the greater part of the the oer iw isrtheaoutlokid.eedton country. Right now, under the pressure of the uneleve g s se up by the o new ceiling round, Punjab like all other states poet Momin-"What shall I do, oh God! Noth- is also in the act of fashioning some sort of a . ceiling reform. It is predictable for reasons ing is of any avail"? It need not be that des- pointed out elsewhere" that substantial redis- perate if one assumes that so.e remedial tribution of land cannot be anticipated. This is measures must inevitably come into their own . . for at least two reasons: (a) It would be a the immediate prospect; and, if the causes are ser. aerro to poc judmet if te to be repeated, they stem from the character tr's .ershi oughtltat going bk the of the state assemblies, the activist lawmakers, . the enforcers of the legislative enactments, and promises already made to the rural masses were possible, and (b) one can argue that nothing is forever even in timeless India. But for the 10. "Land Grab,' National H-erald (June 1973).. 11. Wolf Ladejinsky, "New Ceiling Round and moment, and with all conceivable allowances Implementation Prospects," Economic and Political for past reform setbacks, there is little to cheer Weekly (September 30, 1972). about either. 61. Agrarian Reform in the Philippines On the request of the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, William Sullivan, President McNamara of the World Bank arranged for Ladejinsky to visit the Philippines and study the progress of their land reform. Ladejinsky's observations were reported in this letter of October 7, 1974, to Secretary Conrado F. Estrella of the Department of Agrarian Reform. One noteworthy feature is Ladejinsky's pragmatic recommendation that landlord opposition, arising partly out of opposition to the prescribed mode of payment for expropriated lands, be reduced by "sweetening" the terms of payment. "Unceremonious vigor," one of his favorite phrases in reference to implementation of agrarian reform, is here modified to "unceremonious vigor combined with conciliation." Ladejinsky was gratified by the positive reactions to his views expressed in a personal interview by President Marcos. Agrarian Reform in the Philippines 551 I AM ABOUT TO END MY BRIEF VISIT to your determination of land values. All of this leads country, in the course of which I tried to fa- me to the view rhat the errors of commission miliarize myself with the state of the Philippine and omission in an undertaking of this size agrarian reform inaugurated by President coupled with so short a time span are inevitable. Marcos. The purpose of this letter is to share However, given political and administrative with you the impressions I gathered about the will, they can be corrected without detracting progress of the reform. Considering the magni- from the main aims of the reform. rude of the program, I have far from probed Turning to implementation of the reform, deeply into its various ramifications. In the I assume it will cover all the tenanted land, the circumstances, you will treat my remarks ac- exception being :he maximum retention in the cordingly. Parenthetically, before I proceed category of 7 hectares and less. If this is the with my observations, it may interest you to case, it would, I understand, involve approxi- know that I have read President Marcos' letter mately 38,000 owners of 780,000 hectares of to Mr. McNamara of March 6. I was particu- land for the benefit of 418,000 tenants. I need larly interested in the president's remarks about hardly remind you that this implies a drastic agrarian reform. In view of Mr. McNamara's transformation of tenurial relations and fulfill- own concern about the subject, you will not ment of the pre:;ident's reform pledge. By the mind, I am sure, if I share with him my letter same token, it would have been natural to to you. anticipate all manner of pitfalls standing in the The president's reform proclamation of Oc- way. This is not to say, as some recent ob- tober 21, 1972, your own valued remarks on servers have contended, that the reform is in the subject, and your government's reform danger of disintegration. On the contrary, while project with USAID-all these provide ample the problems are slowing down the implementa- and well-reasoned justification for the abolition tion process, you are not facing the kind of of the existing tenurial system and the shifting alarmist prospects just mentioned; the reform of the majority of the tenants to an ownership has gone too fa:: along to entertain such pros- base. I am, therefore, in accord with the goal pects. I shall touch on the less cheerful side of as expounded in the Presidential Decree No. the picture, but the accomplishments directly 27, assuming, of course, that the means of ef- related to reform are not far to seek. When, fective implementation are at hand. Apart from for example, one visits a barrio where all ten- this, Secretary Estrella, I am impressed with an ants received their allotted land, fixed in price, important aspect of the program you and I and are beginning to receive support items, discussed as far back as 1969. I refer to the the accomplishment is clear cut. It was signifi- fact that this time the tenant will be getting cant to listen to tenants not eligible for land not only the land but indispensable assistance, distribution who feel protected on the land like credit, seeds, fertilizer, and other inputs, they cultivate by virtue of the fact that the re- as well as marketing facilities that assure him form is undermining the position of the land- a better price for his produce. When these re- owners. Quite naturally, most of them would sources and organizations that go with them like to own lands; but, since a goodly number make themselves felt countrywide, it would of tenants on -he land of the smaller owners distinguish the Philippine reform from many will continue as such, this is in itself an im- another well-intentioned but not successful re- portant by-product of the reform. Last but not forms. By not adding these all-important in- the least, though the local administration needs gredients, the best land distribution scheme is bolstering up, it is promoting the reform and usually written in water. In short, one cannot its ancillary activities with dedication. At the take exception to the conceptual basis of your earlier stages, the excessive zeal of the local reform. I am well aware, too, that you have structure you have built has led it into diffi- been able to carry out a great deal of work in culties; but, as between an inert and active identifying tenant tillers and owners, mapping group of refcrm participants, the choice is out relevant holdings, issuing LTC's (certifi- obvious. cates of land title), while at the same time All this is gratifying to an interested ob- grappling with the complicated question of server, but the picture would be out of focus 552 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 if I failed to take note of the stumbling blocks crepancies between LTC'S issued and actually well-known to you which have cropped up in delivered to the tenants, the land distribution the course of the implementation process. This program has slowed down to a trickle, I need is not surprising in a reform which compels not repeat the argument in the rejoinder pro- an owner to divest himself of a good deal of vided by your office except to say that it was property, often all his property, social status, very much to the point. And yet, there is an and political power, on terms he considers dis- LTC problem which on at least three occasions advantageous. It explains why one doesn't have of personal experience loomed large. to travel far afield to be told that the affected In one region comprising six provinces the owners of the current reform phase (more than number of certificates prepared as of August 24 hectares) are against the letter and spirit 31, 1974, was nearly 21,000, but the number of the reform. Their attitude stems from two actually distributed was 13,000. The remainder propositions: They don't care to part with the is "pending." The "why" of the pending is a land; and, if part they must, they don't like the combination of all too quick surveys which terms of payment for the land imposed upon leave much to be desired, of owners who suc- them by one of the principal reform provi- ceeded in concealing their true land positions, sions. I refer here to the 10 percent cash, the of owners contesting many certificates on remainder payable in fifteen years, 6 percent grounds of "partitions" allegedly carried out interest-bearing bonds, nonadjustable for in- prior to October 21, 1972, "urbanization" flationary conditions. I shall have occasion to claims, shift of rice and corn fields to sugar- deal with this matter elsewhere, but here I cane production, and various other claims to should like to call your attention to this obvi- evade reform provisions. The chief of one ous fact: If the owners of more than 24 hectares province is burdened with 40 percent of unde- have nothing good to say about the reform, livered certificates partly for the same reasons which is quite understandable, the owners from and partly (25 percent) due to misspelling 24 down to 7 hectares, who are less well- of names and neglecting middle initials. Care- endowed economically than the higher cate- lessness, probably due to eagerness of the local gories, will like it even less. In saying this, I am staff to show rapid progress, is obvious in yet not shedding tears about the fortune's turn of another case. In the area visited, out of 3,000 either group. Nor is it a plea to let the owners certificates, 500 had to be returned on account of 24 down to 7 hectares go scot-free. This is of misspelled names, 200 instances of owners' mainly to underscore that they will generate contestations," and in all nearly a thousand even greater reform opposition. For this the certificates looking for a home. Taking the government has to be prepared, whereas it countryside as a whole, out of an estimated hasn't been quite prepared to deal with the 215,000 LTC's, probably 40 to 60 percent have owners of 24 hectares and more. For this rea- reached their rightful destination, covering son, Mr. Secretary, the responsibility for elimi- from 150,000 to 200,000 hectares. Since, inci- nating the persistence of obstacles lies partly dentally, it appears that my findings relating to in your corner and mainly on the highest level nondelivery of LTC'S to the ultimate bene- of government. I'll have more on the subject ficiaries depart considerably from other esti- later; but let me only add here that, if the ob- mates, further investigation of this key element structions are to be overcome, the time is in- in the program would seem to me to be of the deed ripe for the kind of firmness or uncere- highest priority. monial vigor coupled with conciliation that only The figures presented suffer from a great the president could generate by laying down lack of precision, but it is generally agreed a few basic guidelines meant to be enforced that they are below the goal. Even so, they in the strictest sense of the word. I hope that reflect an accomplishment in the midst of diffi- the specific of this will become apparent as I cult circumstances. At the same time one can- touch on some of the shortcomings which cur- not overlook the fact that a very large number rently beset the reform. of tenants are hanging in the air, and they will As to shortcomings, I disagree with the remain in that suspended state until adjust- views of some observers that, because of the dis- ments have been made; so far, this is proving to Agrarian Reform in the Philippines 553 be a longer drawn-out affair than should be resolution of all falsifications and, in conse- tolerated. The past technical difficulties are in quence, the deliNery of a large backlog of the process of being corrected, albeit slowly. certificates to tenants will be long in coming. As to future difficulties which the implementa- Whatever the ultimate decision on your tion of the last phase of the reform with its part, it cannot avoid a fairly strong element of greater number of tenants might bring about, force.majeure, and not only because you oper- the center must convey to the local adminis- ate under decrees conceived under martial law. tration that the issue is not one of speed and You would have to resort to forceful action reporting accomplishments in double-quick even under the due process of law, for it is in time. Above all, greater care, even if more the nature of successful agrarian reforms that time consuming, is essential for the good of stepping on the toes of those who oppose them the program. The subsidiary consideration is is an unavoidable precondition. I call your at- that in the eyes of critics of the reform any tention to the obvious despite the penalties problem is apt to be judged as evidence of "proposed for the agrarian reform violations," nonfulfillment. This can be interpreted as such and they are quite stiff. I suspect that they are only if one assumes that no rectification will only proposals, and of this the guilty owners take place, but the causes for such an assump- are certain. After all, there is probably not a tion must be avoided at all cost. case of a landowner sent to jail for violations Technical errors, as extensive as they are, which is not in dispute by appropriate authori- are serious enough when certificates of owner- ties. I perceive in this a contradiction between ship are being held up; but much more serious the new society as envisaged by martial law are the nontechnical difficulties which are at and the ease with which the owners treat their the root of the problem. On this score and obligations under the new society's reform based on talks with local officials, one gets the program. This is apparent not only in illegal feeling of an air of uncertainty extending from subdivisions of large holdings and other eva- the center downward and vice versa. Here, I sions but very strikingly in the issue of land wish to call your attention to an impression valuation. which, if true, only your office can correct. I No matter whether one visits a regional have in mind the practice of contesting owners provincial, district, team office, or barrio, the carrying their cases to Manila in search of question of land valuation stares one in the relief. This tends to delay the resolution of face. How vital this question is to the owners certificate problems while at the same time and tenants calls for no elaboration. And yet tying the hands of the regional directors. Addi- the process proceeds at a snail's pace, and tionally, the evidence is that it takes more than often it does riot proceed at all. As things Memo Circular No. 2-A, modified by Memo stand now, land valuation is in the doldrums. Circular No. 8, to prevent the falsifications Leaving aside the question whether two-and-a- many owners resort to. A more effective solu- half times production from a given plot of tion might be to give the regional directors land is precisely what a successful reform re- who are in a good position to know whether quires, the reality is that most owners and ten- the claims are valid or not the authority to ants cannot agree on the productivity of the deal with such matters expeditiously, on their land. Of course, since both parties have been cognizance, and without further recourse to with the land too long not to know its produc- the center. I know of two instances when a tivity, particularly its productivity in the three regional director so acted, but his files are bulg- years prior to October 1972, the difficulty lies ing with many more similar cases yet to be in the fact that the owners want too much for acted upon. I don't know how other directors the land and that the tenants would like to pay comport themselves in a situation just de- considerably less. The attempt on your part, scribed, but I am struck by the lack of clarity Mr. Secretary, .o bring about a closer meeting in this regard. Any ambiguity of this sort should of the minds through the creation of a thousand be cleared up with the responsibility vested in or more barrio valuation committees has so far regional directors, as suggested. Failing that, led to no tangible results. The composition of or a better measure the center may devise, the the committees favors the tenants, but the 554 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 trouble is that the great majority of the owners prising as it is disturbing that as of the week are avoiding them as if they were poison. Re- ending September 20 the bank had in its port- peated invitation letters from your local officials folio a total of only ninety-five applicants, of to attend the barrio committee meetings are which forty-one are pending; and the lands mainly disregarded. The suggestion of one of actually paid for are a mere 3,100 hectares or your directors to bring the committees to the hardly worthy of comparison with acreage al- owners is not practical either, if for no other ready covered by the distributed certificates. reason than the owners' refusal to elect two It may be noted, too, that according to the bank members to represent them on a committee. 90 percent of the land it has so far dealt with This is a clear case of boycotting the com- was heavily mortgaged. The interpretation mittees, which goes back to something more offered by the bank is that the owners in ques- fundamental than the price of the land, namely tion had so little equity in the land that they the method of payment for the land. This will did not mind parting with it. be discussed subsequently; but, to sum up the In sum, the problem of land valuation can- current state of affairs, let me note that as of not be permitted to go on at the same pace, September 23, 1974, the planning service of and the measures taken so far have led to the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) nothing substantial. If this issue is to be shifted confirmed only 140 owner applications signify- off dead center, the application of muscle seems ing valuation agreements. This number is in- to be in order. But I am not advocating jails or finitesimally small compared to expectations fines. I doubt either would be productive or based on the number of certificates actually stringently applied for reasons I need not go delivered to tenants. The argument of local into or that the instrumentality and authority officials that failure to fix a mutually agreed- exist in the countryside for strong-arm meas- upon price is of no great moment so long as the ures. Above all, none of this is necessary. You tenant has the certificate of ownership is of no have an easier and more effective way out while great validity. If tenants do not know what their applying a firm stance of a different sort. financial obligations are to the owners, many Excepting a few cases your administration of them do not consider themselves owners of will have to arbitrate, land productivity in the the land. An investigation in one locality re- areas of your concern is no mystery; one cannot vealed that 44 percent of the tenants who can find an owner or a tenant who does not know boast of land certificate titles still look upon what it is, and I have learned enough during themselves as leaseholders; they are not reform my field trips to know that your local adminis- beneficiaries because the rentals they continue trators are not ignorant about it either. Armed to pay are higher than the anticipated annual with the information, the first step to break land amortization payments. this logjam is stoppage of rentals, which ten- Apart from the evidence provided by the ants continue to pay laggard owners. The con- planning service of the DAR that land price tinuation of such payments has undoubtedly fixing is making little or no progress, the Land played into the hands of uncooperative owners. Bank charged with the responsibility to pay for Certainly the move would be hard on them, the land points to the same frustration. One b commn coplant i tht th excssie dou- but there is no reason why recalcitrants should cmmntaton comlainted is the excssie doc- be rewarded. The next step is an unchangeable mentation demanded by the bank slows down payments. The bank doesn't deny the charge, cutoff date for the determination of land values defending itself on the ground that it must be with authority vested in regional directors to fix very careful in handling public money. Over- values in case of failure to reach agreement by documentation is demonstrated by the fact that that date. This may result in some instances in the cases of nearly half of payment applicants over or underpayment, but the risk is probably are "pending" for this reason. More to the no greater than what emerges from the haggling point, however, is whereas the Land Bank ex- between owners and tenants. If all these meas- pected and geared itself to an avalanche of ap- ures are strictly adhered to and enforced, the plications, the avalanche has not materialized. valuation process could be speeded up. The For reasons already indicated, it is not as stir- suggestion may appear too drastic, but it seems Agrarian Reform in the Philippines 555 to me that these or any other practical moves tion of the bonds. This suggests the develop- the DAR might devise are long overdue. ment of agroindutrial complexes of purely The crux of most of the difficulties bedevil- agricultural enterprises on the vast reclaimable ing the country's agrarian reform is the mode areas of Mindanao, Palawan, and other outlying of land payment decreed by the government. islands; this can be done on an individual basis As seen in the field, this is the principal cause or through a corporation with state-landlord of the extreme reluctance of owners to negoti- partnership. True enough, the agrarian reform ate land price fixation. While owners in cate- experience may cause ex-owners to shy away gories of more than 24 hectares do not wish from land investments; but appropriate official ,to part with their land, they would dispose of assurances may prove tempting. On the whole, it for these reasons: (a) the realization that it may be envisaged that perhaps one-fourth their day as owners of rice and corn land is, of the total value of the bonds could be used willy-nilly, nearing an end; (b) the relatively eventually as collateral for approved invest- few negotiated land prices are in a range of ments of one kind or another. For the re- P5,000 to 8,000, which while below the market mainder to be paid in nonconvertible bonds, price are nevertheless reasonable even from surely in Philippine conditions a more realistic the owners' point of view; and (c) a better interest rate than :he 6 percent, tax free to be payment arrangement. Ten percent cash and sure, would seem a more reasonable treatment. the remainder in bonds is not attractive, the A partial utilization of the bonds could cash portion being too small and the bonds stimulate greater acceptance of the reform, but being of uncertain value over a fifteen-year the more immediate "carrot" inducement is period. Having been involved in a reform raising the cash portion. I am not prepared to which proved to be needlessly confiscatory, I follow other observers who insist that the cash recognize the merit of your government's ar- portion should be raised to 50 percent. As rangement. However, something should be said "sweetener," I can suggest only an increase on the other side. Despite all the glaring im- from 10 to 25 percent. This would not meet pediments generated by the owners, the reform all or most of what the owners are after, but it is a stick as far as they are concerned. But by would be a pract:cal move in the right direc- itself the stick lacks effectiveness when meas- tion. The suggested figure is not altogether out ured against reform accomplishments. This of thin air. Assuming 430,000 purchased hec- being the case, it may be necessary to supple- tares under the category of above 24 hectares ment the stick with a carrot in the form of at an average of -P7,000 per hectare, the 10 more cash and a clear-cut clarification that the percent cash payment would amount to P300 bonds stand for something more than what million; 25 percent would raise it to P750 presently strikes the eye of an owner. million. I think the country could stand the Speaking first about the bonds, I dare say strain of unanticipated expenditure of the mag- the majority of owners are not aware that there nitude in order to complete the reform. is a considerable element of conversion or Governments have a way of finding all kinds "monetization" available to bondholders. The of resources for all kinds of necessary "visible" Land Bank makes it clear to a visitor that a nof the bonds can be converted into programs, but less so for programs of social iont er isignificance. Even recognizing this, I do not investment or investment-participation in en- terprises approved by the government. The question such commitments or the problems Board of Investments (B01) has listed these of diverting funds from programs already in opportunities, and they come large and small. being. If, however, the Philippine agrarian re- It should be the task of the Land Bank and form is, as widely proclaimed internally and DAR to make certain that there is the fullest externally, the cornerstone of the new society, appreciation among owners of this converti- anything within reason that assists its imple- bility. There is another more familiar field of mentation should not be dismissed out of hand investment which may provide scope for mone- on the ground of lack of funds. In 1975 the tizing binds. I have in mind the availability of government of the Philippines anticipates a public reclaimable lands secured against a por- budgetary outlay of roughly V7,500 million 556 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 for a variety of public programs. If so, it is not less, this renewed concern for leasehold should easy to accept the proposition voiced in certain not detract from the firm prosecution of the circles here that none of these can be trimmed land transfer program. for the sake of speeding up the reform imple- I noted above that the small segment of mentation or new funds secured for this pur- your local administration with which I have pose. Finally, I would not have brought up the been in contact appears to be dedicated and subject of an additional cash outlay but for my eager to go on with the task. And yet, morale concern about the current state of the reform could stand improvement. There is a need of and the all too easygoing manner (f dealing clearer and steady direction and firm delegation with reform obstructions. If the latter cannot of responsibility. Some of your administratorg be eliminated through effective enforcement, are people of vast experience with intimate one might as well be prepared to deal with the knowledge of local conditions, but the authority principal source of evasion part of the way by due them is not always there. On such basic liberalizing the payment formula. So long as issues as combating evasions, their authority is these persist and stronger measures are not or limited and obscure and, hence, ineffective. cannot be applied with good effect, the unexer- When one of your best regional directors han- cised stick might as well be supplemented with dled two evaders with firmness, it impressed a carrot. Actually, this is a tested practice in me as something of an event whereas it should the best of reform climates and could be sig- have been looked upon as a normal chore in nificant at this particular juncture here. the course of duty. As you well know, I part In my field trips and in Manila, I have been company with those critics who interpret the struck by the fact that land distribution is the certificate title problem as prime evidence of sole preoccupation of the Department of the reform's disintegration. But the fact re- Agrarian Reform. The Presidential Decree No. mains that correctable as this problem is, given 27 imposed that condition. Nevertheless, the the will to do so, it could have been largely Land Reform Code of 1963, which substituted avoided if greater stress had been laid on the vastly superior leasehold provision for the qualitative rather than quantitative perform- inferior status of share tenancy, has been ig- ance. I hope that the lesson of this experience nored in the midst of the concern about land is not lost when the next reform phase comes distribution. The neglect of the leasehold oper- around. ations is a basis policy misjudgment not only In regards to the evaders, my position is as because shifting to leasehold improves the already stated, namely, unceremonious vigor status of the tenant, reduces social tensions, combined with conciliation. This does not sug- and stimulates agricultural productivity. There gest a blanket reprieve for subverters of the is also another, more compelling reason. Even reform. In all such instances, administrators of if land distribution is extended down to 7 hec- the reform should be fully prepared to exer- tares, approximately 56 percent of the tenants cise stringent economic penalties and worse if will still remain in that condition. Exactly how necessary, since "punitive" decrees which are many of them are leaseholders as distinguished merely intentional are ineffective. Apart from from share tenants is not known, but it may all this, one of the danger signals of inade- be assumed that more than half of them are quate performance is the seeming inclination in the latter category. Moreover, if land dis- by too many to treat the reform as if it were tribution does not cover the 24- to 7-hectare "old hat" or with no particular respect. Here, category, a possibility which cannot be ex- I do not wish to be misunderstood. I am not cluded at the moment, approximately 73 per- implying that the reform is not a living insti- cent of the tenants will not be covered by tution nor that it cannot overcome its present Decree No. 27. Considering all these factors, trials nor that, above all, many owners do not it is quite apparent that sole preoccupation know full well that their tactics of evasion will with land distribution is something that the not avail them much in the longer run. Though Department of Agrarian Reform should begin this is true, the aura surrounding the early days to reconsider at the earliest moment. Nonethe- of the reform's inauguration is somewhat Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? 557 tarnished; and it is best to make certain that the country, its goals, the encountered diffi- the aroused expectations of the tenants do not culties, specific guidelines for overcoming go begging. them, and commitment to land distribution The preceding leads me to the conclusion from 24 down to 7 hectares-all these could that the time has come for a thorough and very well clear the air and set the future course candid reexamination of the reform's accom- for action. In the experience gained and hope- plishments, failures or shortcomings, and what fully assimilated and henceforth acted upon needs to be done to reinvigorate it. In a broad without fear or favor, lies the hope, Secretary sense and particularly in relation to reinvigora- Estrella, that under your leadership the institu- tion, the man to do it is President Marcos; and tion of private ownership of land will undergo the occasion for it is the second anniversary the kind of change the agrarian reform as of the reform on October 21, 1974. A restate- originally proclaimed by President Marcos in- ment why the reform is of vital importance to tended to accomplish. 62. Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? In this powerful paper dated December 16, 1974, Ladejinsky reported his observations after a visit to the area during the previous month. The paper was subsequently published by World Development, February-March 1976, under the same title. THIS NOTE DEALS WITH the food distress in of West Bengal that 15 million people out of rural West Bengal fohowing a brief visit to a total population of 45 million are in a state the state in early Ncvember in the wake of of semistarvation is what made the state a drought and flood di.vastation. There, as else- center of attentin in a year when a number where, widespread hoarding and black market- of other states have not escaped somewhat ing or failure of the procurement drives, on top similar predicaments either. of depletion of buffer stocks and inadequate im- One of the scarcity features of West Bengal, ports, and the inexorable population spiral are as of other states with large urban centers, is part of the picture. In human terms, it all adds the sharp difference between food conditions up to under-eating on the part of. many, out- in the latter and in the hinterland. The urban right hunger among considerable numbers, re- centers leave one with the impression that, ported death from starvation or prolonged while belt-tightening has been the order of the malnutrition in numbers which are both over- day, in the main they are provided with basic stated and understated depending upon the rations chiefly because the food distribution source of information, occasional suicides, de- policy dictates that they and industrial centers sertion of children, greater crowding of cities, have first priority on available supplies pro- and sale of land by small holders to meet their vided from the central pool, controlled by the immediate food needs. With the exception of central government. This explains why a casual the certainty of rising population numbers, the visitor to a city like Calcutta might be left with cited consequences cannot be quantified; the no thought of special food problems, while in best one can say is that there is a large element reality the state of West Bengal has achieved of truth in all of them. It is unquestionable, great notoriety as one of the worst afflicted by however, that in the light of total food avail- devastating flools and drought. Our observa- ability millions must contend with very short tions support both propositions; it is not in rations. The statement of the relief minister Calcutta but in :he countryside where one runs 558 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 into critical food problems. But it must be which involves West Bengal as well, monthly stated at the outset that those who write about allotments from Delhi of approximately 120,000 West Bengal under such headlines as "1943 to 130,000 tons have not been easy to come Being Re-Enacted" exaggerate the current diffi- by; but Calcutta being Calcutta, numerous per- culties, which are grave enough. In that year an sonal interviews reveal that the rationing sys- estimated 2.5 to 3 million people perished from tem is functioning reasonably well, even if the starvation; in 1974 a few hundreds and possi- total distribution volume is slightly less than bly a couple of thousand shared the same fate. in the preceding year. When the relief minister This comparison, however, in no way mini- spoke of millions in search of food and barely mizes the fact that the people of many parts getting any, he spoke not of Calcutta but of of rural West Bengal have been undergoing the distressed conditions in five of the fourteen extreme privation on a scale not experienced rural districts of the state, some of which suf- in many a year. Moreover, underconsumption fered from floods and some from drought. As is a perennial feature of the state but harsher will be pointed out presently, intentionally or and more visible in 1974. What follows is an not, he spoke also of the lack of food in dis- attempt to pinpoint some of the principal as- tricts which have not been afflicted by nature's pects of this state of affairs. ravages. West Bengal is a deficit state even in good No official would venture an estimate about years, the deficit ranging from 1.5 to 2 million the damage sustained in the five districts and tons. The gap is mostly covered from the the number of people affected. This is not sur- central food pool; this supply is utilized to prising in view of the contradictory official feed the distribution system of Calcutta as well assessments and judgments about everything as one or two smaller urban enclaves. In po- important-size of summer crop already har- litically volatile Calcutta, to keep it fed is the vested; expected size of the most important main concern of no matter which party is in November crop; damage done by floods, cy- power. Part of the distribution policy is that clones, and drought; number of people in the the countryside with its 50 or more percent countryside for whom handout food programs of the people under the poverty line is con- have been launched in order to avoid large sidered "self-sufficient" in food, the fallacious scale starvation; and so forth. On the other theory being that the village provides for its hand, unofficial estimates by interested ob- own. Besides, underconsumption (some call it servers point to an overall loss of crops of only hunger) is a life-long experience of this group 5 percent; and yet one cannnot impugn the of people between a crop and a crop-even food minister's claim of a "huge shortage of when the crops are good. And there certainly foodgrains" from which the people outside has been no reason to worry about the middle Calcutta suffer. A visit to a couple of dis- and upper rural groups who profit also in years tricts, one damaged and one undamaged, sup- of shortage when prices are high and procure- ports the minister's contention. According to ment is permissive. In short, West Bengal has him, the shortage is not so much a result of managed under these arrangements and pre- nature's folly as of the hoarding of a possible conceptions so long as Calcutta didn't suffer million tons of rice. This was precipitated by from a lack of basic rations at subsidized prices. the undetermined crop losses, rice smuggling In 1974 the situation has undergone a into Calcutta, and sharply rising prices in and change; the idea that the rural poor are cared outside West Bengal. In a private conversation for by the village no longer holds even in offi- with the food minister, he made it clear that cial circles. To be sure, Calcutta continues to the "soft" procurement drive last year led to do reasonably well though on reduced rations, hoarding and that the subsequent dehoarding such as 2.5 kilograms per person per week, at campaigns have been no more successful than around Rs1.50 per kilogram compared with the procurement drive. What the minister un- open market prices of Rs3.5 to 4. This type of derstandably did not say is that the political statutory (obligatory) rationing (SR) covers party to which he belonged favored neither 10 to 11 million urbanites, mostly in Calcutta. strong procurement nor dehoarding, for these In this year of widespread food shortages, would have violated the political connection Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? 559 with the important district constituents-the vately that some of these works last no longer well-to-do farmers. This explains why, out of than a week, partly for lack of resources and a total production of 6 million tons of rice and partly due to administrative problems. In such a marketable surplus of about one million tons, circumstances there are neither additional earn- ithe state government had decided to procure ings to speak of nor the much talked-about only 500,000 tons. In fact, it collected only asset-building opeiations as the core of work 160,000 tons. This was inevitable as the gov- programs. ernment was depending on the "goodwill" of The drought ir. Purulia and Bankura dis- the rice-mill owners while the surplus producers tricts and floods in the districts north of the .were depending on the government's unwilling- Ganges have induced unexpected programs for ness and incapacity to extract the grain. Thus, which the administration was not prepared. although the millers' quota in the total target What little is done is done on the fly and was 360,000 tons, they delivered only 40,000 grain is not available to keep various pipe- tons. lines going outside of Calcutta. Bearing on the Regardless of the top priority enjoyed by same point is the prevalent and unsupportable Calcutta and the political orientation of the view that the food scarcity in the rural districts government of West Bengal relative to the is a passing phenomenon which will be cor- countryside, in 1974 it couldn't neglect alto- rected by the promising November harvest of gether the rural hungry. No one will ever know the winter crop. This is questionable, however the exact number of people who fall in that good the crop turns out to be. This judgment, category, but it undoubtedly is large even if elaborated in subsequent paragraphs, is based the minister's figure already referred to is ex- on three visits in the countryside and informa- aggerated. What is not questionable is the tion relevant to the "normal" condition of the meagerness of the assistance despite an alleged rural poor. It is apparent in almost any rural expenditure of Rsl5 crores for all forms of district that, while floods and droughts create relief and an officially claimed monthly dis- particularly grave food distress, districts not tribution of 25,000 tons of grain among land- afflicted at all by the perversity of nature are less laborers, holders of plots too small to be affected only to a lesser degree. It is also ap- self-sufficient, and poorer smalltown people. parent that only sharply increased food avail- Much of this goes under the name of "modi- ability accompanied by a sharp fall in prices fied rationing," which means nothing more and a rise in rural employment over longer than 500 grams per person per week. There periods of time and at better wages could are other relief programs for the flood and bring a real measure of relief for those who drought victims launched on September 15 to are destitute year in and year out. feed daily some 650,000 people, of whom an Bankura district is a drought victim, and the estimated 250,000 get free food from "gruel anguish of its hung!:y has been amply described kitchens" and the remainder receive meals and publicized. Suffice it to say here that conse- from "cheap canteens" at 25 paise per meal. quences summed up in the first paragraph fully Responsible officials tell an inquiring visitor apply there; the "large element of truth" ap- that this mix of programs, difficult to disen- plies here as the whole truth. Assertions of tangle one from another and with evidence mortality from starvation are easy to come by, that some of it exists only on paper, covers a but nothing that might conjure up an image total of 2.3 million people. These figures are of famine like that in 1943. And yet one can- suspect, demonstrated if nothing else by the not escape the visible suffering among the useless chore of pressing on officials to recon- rural poor who bear the brunt of skyrocketing cile furnished data. The hastily set-up rural food prices, paltry wages, and little employ- works programs are utterly inadequate. Only ment at any wage. Even in Bankura rice is one person per family is allowed to work, and available in the ma:ket, but at prices only few he receives 750 grams of wheat and cash of can afford. Relief has been stepped up both Rs1.25 per day. Not only are these projects few from Calcutta and by some well-to-do indi- in number, but their capacity to provide em- viduals and charitable organizations who in ployment is pitifully low. Officials admit pri- effect maintain the gruel kitchens which offer 560 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 a daily meal but not to everybody in need. Bankura with its heartbreaks is attributed There are not enough kitchens to go around, to nature's perversity, but in a large measure and according to a relief worker they cater to this is equally true in districts with no visita- only a relatively small portion of the people in tions of nature. The 24-parganas district with want. The common thread which underlies the its two enclaves, Diamond Harbor anc food situation in stricken Bankura as elsewhere Kakdwip, illustrate what we have in mind. The in rural West Bengal is the total inadequacy of spring and summer crops were good and the grain for distribution and the limited scope of ripening winter paddy, the major crop, had all the emergency relief programs. West Bengal the making of a promising one. Had the authorities are fully cognizant of the dire con- traveler not been alerted that there, too, gruel- sequences that lurk in the wake of great num- kitchens are the lifeblood of a great many bers of underfed people, as recently told by the people, he would have passed them by. Fore- chief minister to Sir John Crawford. But with warned, he is at centers of food distribution, the food at its disposal they don't dare to cut one of them handing out potfuls of gruel to rations to the bone in a tense city like Calcutta hundreds of people queuing up in line. In all, for the sake of providing something more sub- the Diamond Harbor kitchen is supposed to stantial for the hinterland. It is not necessary to feed 4,000 people of a block made up of thirty- spend much time in Calcutta and Bankura to two villages but feeds probably no more than see the official policy treatment of one as 1,000. As one watches the line, one is struck against the other. by the predominance of women and children, In Bankura the subject of mortality from card in one hand and metal containers in the starvation of perhaps 100 to 200 is not hidden other. The relative absence of men is explained under a bushel. Politicians and relief workers by their reluctance to appear "begging" for speak about it, but a visiting observer has no food when their womenfolk and children can way of ascertaining the real magnitude of the do the same just as well, or absence in Calcutta ultimate price hunger exacts. Flat denials of in quest for employment. The gruel is a mixture such occurrences by the central government of coarse grains, a bit of rice, vegetables and a and, in this instance, by the administration of dash of oil, and lots of water. For most of the West Bengal cannot be taken seriously. Dis- recipients this is the only meal of the day. trict officials are cautious in reporting to Cal- If one is to believe the elicited statements from cutta cases of this type of mortality. The investi- a group of eight, it would appear that three do gations they launch and the findings are more scavenging to find additional food while five often than not attributed to causes allegedly not wait for the portion of gruel the day following. directly relevant to hunger, as if gastroenteritis They all fare very badly, and a visit to a couple were a disease caused by overeating. The official of shacks with nothing edible in sight confirms approach to this issue has given rise to a this impression. A chance encounter with a terminological controversy waged in the press. group from the countryside who pulled up It is mainly about whether scarcity is famine stakes and reached Calcutta looking for em- or whether malnutrition is starvation. The ployment and food shows them seemingly minister of state for agriculture of the union worse off, if that is possible. On the other hand, government saw fit to lay down the dictum that it is idle to measure the degree of distress be- scarcity is not famine, except in instances of tween one and the other; both are victims of 100 percent failure and conditions of "absolute" circumstances already noted and those to be scarcity. As to malnutrition versus starvation, mentioned elsewhere. the government draws a fine line of distinction The gruel kitchen operates from early morn- between the two, evidently on the theory that ing till noon, and all those who queued up re- the former is less embarrassing than the latter. ceived their allotment-some an extra ladleful The fact is that many people in Bengal are and some less. But on the particular occasion without adequate food and a few of them are described here, the closing of the kitchen was dying for the lack of it. Whatever the terminol- not the end of the story. Not many minutes ogy, those who die do so inch by inch, finally later pandemonium broke loose. A group of destroyed by hunger. about forty appeared on the scene, cards in Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? 561 hand, clamoring for food. An examination of withstanding. Up-to-date data for the state are the cards showed that some were repeaters but not available but in a division of 24 Parganas that the greater number were latecomers. Re- district, next door to Calcutta, one finds data lief workers explained that this was not a rare such as these: 51 percent of the farmers owned ,ccurrence. When ingredients are available, a land up to one acre, or 5 percent of the total; new batch is cooked and distributed; when it one percent held 29 percent of the land. Or, is not, the would-be recipients are out of luck. while 95 percent of the farmers held only half The repeaters are problems, resolved on the of the land, 5 percent owned the balance. This spot, favorably, if a repeater makes a convincing is not exceptional and the impact of this owner- case for an extra portion. ship pattern is felt in production; in the eva- There are many similarly nature-unaffected sion of land reforms; and, of course, on the villages in West Bengal and badly in need of condition of the landless. And so it has on the gruel kitchens, cheap canteens, modified ra- sharecroppers who cultivate 40 percent of the tioning, and other forms of relief from hunger. land. Since nature has been kind, why the relief ur- The average family size of landless laborers gency? The 1974 familiar answers are overall is between five and six, and wage earners per food shortages, poor procurement, and high family is less than two. That living conditions prices. But the more specific normal causes are border on near starvation is supported by other the presence of a large and growing number of factors. Most of the cultivated land of the state landless agricultural laborers, shift from pay- is single cropped. On paper 27 percent of ment of wages in kind to cash as desired by the cultivable land has assured irrigation, but where owners, meager wages, prevalence of single water sources have been created the wastage in cropping, and short duration of employment- distribution due to seepage has been very great. and all this leading to abysmally low purchas- Even in areas of perennial water estimated at 3 ing power. With the exception of this year's million acres, the average cropping intensity is abnormally high prices, all other factors operate less than one and a half crops per acre per year. in bad and good crop years alike. This alone impose:; short employment seasons, The number of landless in West Bengal is the total number of working months ranging sharply rising. The population of West Bengal under four and not exceeding five. Labor is in is about 45 million, and three out of every four surplus and has ncne of the bargaining power live in the villages. This relationship had not exercised by its counterpart in Punjab. When changed between 1961 and 1971, although they are employed, they work in peak seasons migration to Calcutta goes on at all times. On from dawn to dusk at Rs2.5 or less. The same the other hand, the number of owner culti- Punjab laborer earns in peak seasons closer to vators during the decade declined from nearly Rs8 to 10 per day, particularly during harvest 5 to 4 million while the number of landless time. In off-peak seasons the Bengali's daily increased significantly as part of the general rate wage is as low as Rsl.50, and the old custom of of population growth, sale of land by marginal meals in addition to the wage has been reduced farmers, and outright eviction of sharecroppers. to a minimum. The Rs5 minimum wage is not The combination of these factors leads to the enforced. The inc:-easing trend of eliminating bottom rung of the agricultural ladder. The the traditional practice of payment in kind for all-India percentage of cultivators and agricul- work performed during harvesting and thresh- tural laborers in the male working force was 67 ing is taking its toll. On irrigated, high-yielding percent in 1971. The percentage of agricultural land the practice cf payment in kind has virtu- laborers in the male working force was 15 in ally disappeared and clearly to the advantage 1951 and had increased to 21 by 1971. In West of the owners who get higher yields and higher Bengal, however, the percentage was 20 in prices. As for the landless, they lost what 1961 and 33 in 1971, the highest in the coun- amounted to something like food insurance for try. In some districts of the state the proportion part of the year. The stomach of every inter- doubled within the decade. Along with this viewed tenant was thoroughly aware of this development there has been a renewed concen- development, but there is nothing they can do tration of land holdings, agrarian reforms not- to reverse the trend which is countrywide. It 562 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 might be noted that neither the central nor They are not only poor but have no political state governments have taken the slightest in- pull despite their numbers and no organization terest in the matter. Directly related to this is whatever. Presently, no political party, includ- that opportunities for gainful employment out- ing the extreme left, is capable or willing to side the agricultural sphere are virtually non- undertake such a chore. The days of the united existent. front government of four or five years ago The shacks they live in, the clothes they dominated by the Communists are gone. The wear, the food they eat, and their general ap- 300,000 acres or so of land "grabbed" by Coin- pearance-all these speak of miniscule income munist activists have since been returned to which inevitably cannot meet their minimum their owners, and many of the grabbers while consumption expenditures. Precisely what the their time away in jails. In this political topsy- income is was difficult to ascertain from those turvy it is not surprising that the landless and we questioned, but obviously they had plenty the sharecroppers are left high and dry. Nor is of nothing. Nevertheless, figuring generously, it surprising that in the face of chronic distress their average yearly earnings cannot exceed and deprivation they are afraid to alienate those Rs200 to Rs300. In the late 1960s a Labor De- who provide them with work at least for part partment study of the living conditions of the of the year. landless in a number of districts concluded that One of the consequences of the rural condi- their yearly earnings were as low as Rs103 and tions in Bengal in 1974 is the spurt in sales of as high as Rsl37. This was far below the then land by the small and marginal farmers, thereby estimated expenditure requirements of Rs240 increasing the size of the landless group. Such per year to stay just above the poverty line. sales are mostly "distress" sales. Although land When 1974 prices are compared with those of values have been sharply rising in recent years 1961, the Rs240 minimum must be doubled. and more so under the inflation impact, sales In conditions of extreme food deficiencies of of such land command a very low price; if occa- today or shortages in normal days, agricultural sional reports and discussions in the field are laborers of the area in question are worse off to be taken at their face value, a piece of land than a decade ago. The department comment normally worth Rsl,000 sells for half that price on its findings ran as follows: "When this very or less. The badly affected Conch Behar district poor daily income is evaluated in the context (West Bengal) illustrates the situation. June, of the average size of the family in the district July, and August, normally dull months for under survey, it really baffles reasoning how land sales, registered six thousand of them in they continue to live." one subdivision of the district; the total sales The bafflement of survival is the greater in for the year will be largest on record. It is also 1974, for this time even with increased cash estimated that 80 percent of the sales do not earnings they are not only priced out of the exceed one acre and that these fall in the "dis- open food market where rice sells at Rs3.5 to 4 tress sale" category. In most cases the un- per kilogram, but for most of them the same written commitment on the part of purchasers would be true if they were covered by statutory of these lands to return the same when the rationing at Rsl.50 per kilogram. The landless, original owners have repaid the sale price with therefore, are worst hit, and only to a lesser interest is not adhered to. There are legal degree the same may be said of marginal farm- barriers against distress sales of land, but there ers and sharecroppers. Local authorities esti- seems to be no difficulty to circumvent the mate that, in the Diamond Harbor block men- law. Many of the sales can be traced to in- tioned earlier, these groups represent about 70 debtedness incurred in cash or in kind, and all percent of the population and they often ex- of it at a monthly interest charge of 6 or more perience acute scarcity of basic foodstuffs. And percent. The landless and the sharecroppers this is in an area where the crops this year are also debt ridden either to landowners or have been reasonably good. In a real sense, moneylenders, who are often one and the same therefore, the landless and semilandless are en- person. In the areas visited, indebtedness titled to relief in good as well as bad years, ranges from Rs300 to Rs600. Repayment is for they are the authentic people of poverty. often in the form of labor performed on the Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? 563 fields of the lenders, but being indebted is a turn reduces their digestive capacity and gives permanent condition of landless. The fact is rise to the widespread epidemic of gastro- that neither the landless nor the sharecroppers enteritis and diarrhea. These migrants know have any access to the organized money mar- nothing about gruel kitchens, cheap canteens, ket-cooperative credit societies, nationalized and other relief measures the government of banks, and so forth. They have no alternative West Bengal is promoting in the rural areas. but to borrow grain from the rural rich during It takes little effort to establish that these new the lean agricultural seasons when prices are additions to the growing population of Cal- normally high. All this is well known and is cutta are landless, small holders, and share- mentioned here merely to stress that it is part croppers who already sold their cattle, plows, of their life-style in years when food problems and even household articles before trekking to do not claim the headlines but are present just Calcutta or other cities. For the city adminis- the same as far as a large segment of rural tration they present a very difficult problem Bengal is concerned. because, even if any significant welfare pro- Migration into Calcutta from the country- gram to better their lot were within its compe- side is an old story, but this year is likely to be tence, it would attract more rural people in a record year. To an unaccustomed eye it is distress. This is an unacceptable prospect, but difficult to judge whether a larger number of so is their condition in the city. To resolve this people appear to be living on the streets and dilemma, the authorities would like to send sidewalks of Calcutta. But a study prepared by them back where they come from. This is the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Au- acceptable in theory but not in practice, and thority shows they are coming in larger num- the human flow from countryside to the city bers. A major finding of the study is that pave- will go on unabated. And so it will be so long ment dwellers are Bengali-speaking, Hindu as rural West Bengal has little to offer a vast agricultural laborers whose livelihood in the group of its inhabitants. villages had, for a wide range of reasons, col- In the midst of acute food shortages, a visitor lapsed, and that only out of despair do these is startled by the profusion of grain, vegetables, people venture into Calcutta. In 1971 an esti- and fruit in the markets and stalls of Calcutta, mated 48,000 people migrated from the coun- albeit at a stiff price. Most of the grain is tryside into the city center encompassing 3 smuggled in, arid thousands of landless and million people. In 1973 an additional 175,000 other underprivileged are heavily involved in people found their way there. The current year it as agents of the surplus producers who short- is expected to show a further increase. These change the state on their procurement obliga- are the poorest of the poor, worse off than the tions. Of plans to prevent smuggling there is slum dwellers. A sample of 10,000, 98 percent no end, but it goes on just the same by bi- of them born outside of Calcutta, classifies 56 cycle, train, or boat, yielding hired smugglers percent as "very poor" with yearly income not an income of R:;10 to 15 per day. The connec- exceeding Rs80; 32 percent are "middle class," tion between the owners of rice and the land- or Rs8O to 140; and 12 percent are "well off" less who work 1:heir land or those who tenant with income from Rsl40 and above. The last . mst ave be doe wit or sharecrop a large portion of it and now help two classifications must have been done with the tongue in cheek, but they are as symbolic of the tm smuggle out the rice is not surprising, and life they escaped from as they are of the life- noly ecalse t attrind thmelves style Calcutta offers them. Recent attempts to gainfully" employed at a critical rime. It is seal off Calcutta from migrants have not been part-and-parcel of the close ties between the successful. A visit to the city's two railway well-to-do farmers, the political party in power, terminals shows that rural destitutes are arriv- the rice mills, the government purchase agents, ing daily in considerable numbers. They have and all those whmo work or rent their land. The nothing to sustain them except begging for sum total of this relationship led to the failure food and drinking water. After the end of the of the procurement and delivering drives and day they collect the leftover vegetables from to smuggling as its principal by-product. In the market, eat them half-cooked, which in fact, it goes a long way to explain the agrarian 564 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 and political arrangements of rural West every field of agricultural activity. A high offi- Bengal. cial in Calcutta made no bones about it, assign- With the harvesting of the exceptionally ing the blame to the state's preoccupation over good November crop, the food situation will time with industrial rather than agricultural ease, at least for a while, so much so that ac- priorities. cording to a reported government declaration There are other, weightier reasons already "Relief Work Can Close-The Emergency Is alluded to which have thwarted development Over." If procurement at long last should and are responsible for the permanency of the miraculously yield the anticipated 500,000 tons, lean months and food shortages among the dis- it would work to the same end. The same if inherited. A couple of other examples may be the ad hoc created various forms of food as- added; one of them is the much talked about sistance are not dismantled but expanded and "integrated rural development." In West Bengal institutionalized. All this, at best, would pro- this is little in evidence. Administratively, too, vide only a barest minimum to keep body and there are special problems arising from a num- soul together among the poorest. This is the ber of uncoordinated ministries all concerned condition because, while in 1974 the food with agriculture, directly or indirectly. One of situation was notoriously out of hand, for the the ministers rightly bemoaned to an inquiring landless and nearlandless it is normally bad visitor his remoteness from, and unfamiliarity without an "assist" from nature's havoc. This with, the activities of the other ministers. That is a perennial problem, and the fact that it something was seriously amiss on the rural becomes a public issue only in a year of acute scene received once again official recognition scarcities cannot gloss over the yearly short- recently. On December 14, on the concluding ages which victimize the poor. In either case, day of congress workers' deliberations con- these are not met with an intent that would clave, the minister of finance delivered himself make a significant difference to the needy. For of some observations worth mentioning, al- reasons already noted, there is politically much though not exceptional. He was reported to more at stake in Calcutta than in the rest of have said that, unless 500,000 tons of rice were West Bengal. But this is only part of the ex- procured this year, the public distribution sys- planation and by far not the primary one. The tem would fail. "Either we procure or we basic reason is that it is questionable whether a perish," he cautioned. In view of West Bengal's state government other than the present one record of successfully milking the central pool would do better so long as agricultural produc- while procuring poorly, the consequences of tion remains at levels where yearly deficits are the admonition may have been exaggerated; the norm and the agricultural rural structure but the need to procure that volume cannot be remains unchanged. gainsaid; less threatening, judging by past ex- The commonly prevailing view is that West perience, is the finger of accusation leveled at Bengal has no business of being a food-deficit the well-to-do farmers. In respect to the rural state since its soils are generally good and the economy, the minister stated that agricultural state "floats on water." It conjures up a favor- development, land reforms, minor irrigation, able setting for the biological-chemical tech- and cottage and small industries should be nologies-irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and given greater importance in West Bengal's so forth associated with high-yielding varieties plans. Sufficient attention, he said, had not and such benefits as land augmentation, labor been paid to basic problems of agriculture.' intensification, and rising output. The applica- The minister's strictures are well taken, but tion of this formula in West Bengal.is limited, injecting new life into the agricultural economy but to the extent of its penetration, the state's will not be easy and will take great tenacity of agricultural economy didn't stand still. Irriga- purpose and some doing. What will not fit the tion facilities, fertilizer use, and grain produc- bill is the recently devised comprehensive de- tion have risen and wheat is becoming an velopment project (CADP) which is talked important crop. On the other hand, when the state's physical attributes are compared with its needs, the picture is one of deficiencies in 1. The Sunday Statesman (December 16, 1974). Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis or Chronic? 565 about in official circles as a major item of rural perpetuation. In 'West Bengal, particularly, this reconstruction.2 But taking the most extrava- is easier said than done. The pockets of high gantly favorable view of all the endeavors, pub- concentration of ownership are there; the 5 lic and private, it is assumed that West Bengal percent who own 50 percent of the land could could eventually fill the 1.5 to 2 million tons stand a thinning-out process, although the gap. Only in that event will the food situation poorest of the poor, the landless, with no rights ease and some of its beneficial effects will de- in land, would hardly come in for any shares. volve upon rural poor as well. This approach, however, is mostly academic; Whether the poor eat better is less a func- the political climate for any redistributive tion of increased production than of purchasing scheme is not "right," and the ceiling legisla- power they command, but the latter will re- tion and its ultimate effect on land redistribu- main at low levels or hardly a part of the "in- tion among the needy can be dismissed as of come stream" if the agrarian structure continues marginal value, as illustrated by the following to be dominated by a handful of wealthy farm- development. The area slated for redistribution ers. Land reform-redistributive as well as in West Bengal under the ceiling laws is protective-suggests itself as an obvious anti- 452,000 acres. In the past two years 58,000 dote against inequality of land and other acres have been acquired but only 5,000 acres income-earning assets. This presumably would were actually distributed. The remainder is un- strike at the root cause of inequalities and their der dispute in law courts. A more rewarding way of helping one category of the poor- though not solving their problems-is to give 2. CADP has been about two years in the making, the sharecroppers or tenants complete security and the testing of it is some time off; but when in of tenure, as di:;tinguished from distributive operation it is supposed to be very innovative, the gist of it being compulsory consolidation of hold- reforms. This would mean enforcement of the ings and collective utilization of irrigation facilities already existing l.2gal rentals, sharing of inputs, on holdings within a project block of 10,000 acres or recorded rights ir the land, an end to evictions, more and the eventual application of the "coopera- and delivery of promised access to institutional tive principle." Personal interviews with the devel- . opers of the idea did not shed much light on how financing of the::r agricultural operations. As Bengal's agriculture will be reconstructed except in for the landless, the only likely means to im- rather far-fetched generalities. Administrative ar- prove their food purchasing power are three- rangements, sources of "seed money" and just plain fold: an extended employment period; wages money, and an infrastructure in its various forms in kind rather than cash; and, if cash, a binding are still hanging in the air. The only prepared project (about one block in Naida district) offers a glim- minimum wage. One is tempted to suggest a mer of what CADP hopes to achieve. The area in ques- drastic scaling down of indebtedness-by fiat tion, made up of 10,000 cultivated acres, 4,600 if necessary-for it is in part the consequence owner cultivators and sharecroppers, and 2,714 land- of short employment and meager wages. But less laborers, might offer employment of 275 days per year at an average rate of Rs5 per day to 60 per- such a proposal is futile unless the mentioned cent of the labor force. There is nothing firm about preconditions are enforced. any of this, partly because everything is still only on These are the familiar "should be dones," paper and partly because the infrastructure is very and they are paraded once again with great poor. As the project report puts it: "If the present type of socioeconomic institutions characterized by reluctance. Experience over the years has shown increased landlessness of peasants, the extremely high that these well-known remedial measures are rate of sharecroppers' rent, the very high rate of in- poles apart from what the owners are willing terest charged by the moneylenders (which is prac- to accept, what the state government is pre- tically the only source of credit for the overwhelming majority of farmers) continue, then even the meager pared to impose, or the would-be beneficiaries physical infrastructure that can be provided by the can enforce on their own. The only possible state cannot be fully utilized by the people." This exception is an increase in double cropping untried model is far therefore from the sine qua non with its attendani: rise in employment, provided of Bengal's rural development. The qualms of this iti o.iue yterpdygoignme observer have been brushed aside; instead, the virtues it is not diluted by the rapidly growing number of this would-be panacea are extolled and with the of ruralists looking for jobs. This is not to clearly expressed hope that somehow the World Bank disparage the special agencies created to assist would see fit to lend its support to it. the small and marginal farmers and here and 566 THE WORLD BANK YEARS, 1964-1975 there the landless through special employment from on high cannot be tolerated. It is an af- programs. But emerging with the memory of front to the multitudes suffering from it, and it "normal" and abnormal conditions prevailing in should be no less so to all those who speak of rural West Bengal, what can one do but repeat the abolition of poverty and of democracy, these truisms at the sight of the hungry in egalitarianism, socialism, and the general up- good and bad crops years alike. What is one to lift of the downtrodden. Giving expression to say at the sight of gruel kitchens which deaden all these is indeed preferable than passing them hunger more than they feed? Or at the sight over in silence, but with the proviso that the of works programs which are caricatures hardly deed is not "out of station,"' as is frequently relieving anybody? Or modified rationing of the case. 500 grams of grain per person per week? All If all these worthy avowals are to acquire this and more of the same at the crest of a food meaning, the practical approach is not to emergency. mouth the resilience of the poor. That they At this writing, the inadequate relief meas- "can take it" can no longer be treated as an ures are taking a holiday and normalcy is taking attribute of national hardihood. This has served over with the benefits of land ownership, credit, for all too long both as a source of lassitude for and technology sopped up by the well-to-do those who should know better and as a denial farmers. For the recently troubled government of basic rights for those who need them most. of West Bengal, this is a time for a sigh of The fact is that the poor are the Achilles' heel relief; but what it pretends not to know or of West Bengal and of all that eats at its vitals. doesn't care or is incapable of recognizing is a The cure, partial though it may be, lies in the reality that cannot be wished away-that under- immediate concentration on the elementary-a consumption and low purchasing power or no stitch here and a stitch there on the canvas of purchasing power to speak of for vast numbers the protective reforms to mitigate the worst is a part of that very normalcy. In the existing conditions under which they live and work in framework of West Bengal's land limitations normal times as in times of natural calamities. and how it is owned and used and the bulging numbers pressing against it, perpetuation of poverty is virtually unavoidable. And yet ac- 3. The common expression "out of station" re- ceptance of this state of affairs as if preordained fers to officials out of the town in which they serve. APPENDIXES The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum 569 A. The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum This is the first of two basic official documents which led to the pDst-World War II land reform in Japan. On October 26, 1945, George Atcheson, Jr., the acting political adviser to General Douglas MacArthur, transmitted to the general a memorandum "prepared by a member of my staff, in consultation with Far Eastern experts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prior to his departure from Washington." The memorandum, entitled "Japan: Agrarian Reform," was prepared by Robert Fearey of the U.S. State Department on the basis of Wolf Ladejinsky's professional input. Copies of the memorandum and transmittal were sent to the State Department on the same date. I: was General MacArthur's acceptance and decision to act upon this memorandum which led tc. the land reform. Ladejinsky's own account of why MacArthur responded positively to this recommendation is presented in his "From a Landlord to a Land Reformer" (11-16). OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES a member of my staff, in consultation with Far POLITICAL ADVISER Eastern experts of the U.S. Department of Tokyo, October 26, 1945 Agriculture, prior to his departure from Wash- CONFIDENTIAL ington. SUBJECT: Agrarian Reform in Japan Perpetually depiessed conditions in agricul- The Honorable ture have enabled the military during recent The Secretary of State decades to pose as the champions of the farm- Washington, D.C. ing class, defending its interests against the privileged classes arid arguing with considerable Sir: success that the only real solution of the farm- I have the honor to enclose a copy of a er's plight lies in overseas expansion. Continua- paper, "Japan: Agrarian Reform," and a copy tion of the present conditions may in future be of a memorandum of October 26, 1945, trans- expected to leave the farming class a fertile mitting the paper to General MacArthur. field for military propaganda. It appears to us that the problem of agrarian The ruling and propertied classes have al- reform is one of far-reaching importance and ways strongly opposed the initiation of basic deserves careful attention in the current pro- agrarian reforms and, judging by the small at- gram for the democratization of Japanese tention which the Higashi-kuni and Shidehara economy. governments appear to have given the matter, Respectfully yours, will probably continue to do so. Although the George Atcheson, Jr. Socialist and Communist Parties have an- nounced intention to carry out agrarian re- OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES forms, the changes proposed seem ill-considered POLITICAL ADVISER and inadequate, and occupy a subordinate posi- Tokyo, October 26, 1945 tion in their respective platforms. We would suggest as a possible course of MEMORANDUM FOR: Supreme Commander and procedure that the Japanese Government be SUBJCie ofra St instructed to initi.te studies of the problem, SUBJECT: Agrarian Reform in Japan and to draw up, in consultation with the ap- There is attached, as of possible interest, a propriate sections of your Headquarters, a com- paper, "Japan: Agrarian Reform," prepared by prehensive reform program which, after re- 570 APPENDIXES ceiving your approval, would be subjected to nite deterioration in the farmer's economic public scrutiny before presentation to the Diet. status. The farm debt increased eightfold, and Implementation of the reforms should not, of each year additional freeholders lost their land course, be permitted to interfere with the pro- through foreclosure and had to accept a tenant duction of foodstuffs during the present period status. As it became clear that the governmenV of acute shortages. planned no important reforms in their behalf and that the future held forth only the prospect George Atcheson, Jr. of still greater poverty and distress, the long- suffering farming class showed signs of increas- ing discontent. Dissatisfaction reached its peak The Japanese Agrarian Problem during the early and middle 1930s, subsiding thereafter only because of the developing war INDUSTRIALIZATION IN JAPAN did not lead, crisis. as it did in England and certain other coun- The unsatisfactory state of Japanese agricul- tries, to the withdrawal from cultivation of a ture can be traced to two fundamental causes- large proportion of the cultivated area and the natural limitations and handicaps, and the gov- relegation of agriculture to a position of rela- ernment's discrimination against agriculture in tively minor importance in the economy. Dur- favor of industry and trade. While no less than ing the last seventy years the Japanese farm nine separate elements in the farmer's plight population has increased 25 percent; improved are listed and described in the following pages, farming techniques have been developed; and it will be found that they all derive from these the cultivated area has been painfully ex- two basic causes. panded with the result that the annual farm output during recent decades, far from declin- "Too many men on too little land" ing, has been from two to three times greater than during the feudal era. Japanese agricul- The most important single cause of the unsatis- ture has continued to supply the bulk of the factory conditions prevailing in Japanese agri- country's food requirements notwithstanding culture is overcrowding on the land. About 5.5 the more than twofold increase in the popula- million farm households till only 15 million tion and at the same time has been the source acres, or an average of only 2.7 acres per house- of the country's leading export item, raw silk. hold. This latter figure is to be compared (leav- The rewards to agriculture, however, have ing out of account differing degrees of fertility) not been commensurate with its contribution. with an estimated 3.0 acres per farm household The farming population has been permitted to in China, 3.6 acres in Korea, 10 acres in the retain only a small proportion of its expanded United Kingdom, 47 in the United States, and output for its own consumption or to exchange 80 in Canada. Many Japanese farm families, for the products of industry. The greater part however, cultivate much less than 2.7 acres. has been taken from it in the form of high rent, In 1938, 33.8 percent tilled less than 5 tan interest, and tax charges and used for the bene- (1.2 acres) and 66.5 percent tilled less than fit of industry and trade and the furtherance of I cho (2.5 acres). the military program. As a consequence, al- Alleviation of this condition cannot be ex- though living standards in the farming dis- pected through expansion of the arable land tricts have improved materially since feudal area as a consequence of war casualties or times, the improvement has been much less barring revolutionary advances in the science than proportionate with the increase in the of fertilization through increased yields per average farmer's annual product; and stan- acre. During the last seventy years it has been dards are still extremely low. possible to increase the area of cultivated land Nevertheless, until about twenty-five years by only 25 percent, and that only with the ago, the farming population remained reason- greatest effort and expense. Moreover, all of ably content with the gains which it had made. this expansion was accomplished before 1921 In the interwar period, however, not only were when the peak of 15,101,000 acres was reached. no further gains recorded but there was a defi- Since that time total acreage has remained at The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum 571 a slightly lower level, varying between 14.4 about 60 percent. All expenses connected with and 15 million acres. War casualties cannot be the raising of the crop-seed, farmhouse, sheds expected to improve the situation, the total and implements, and all taxes and assessments working population having risen substantially except the land tax-are normally the tenant's since 1940; and yields per acre are already own responsibility and must be deducted from among the highest in the world. his share of the annual product. He receives The only real solution to the problem would nothing from the landlord save the land and be the absorption of literally millions of farm usually is not even compensated for necessary workers in industrial occupations. For the fore- improvements wbich he makes upon his hold- seeable future, however, an expansion of Japa- ing. Moreover, centracts between landlord and nese industry sufficient to absorb this number tenant are so loose and for such short periods of workers must be ruled out of practical con- and the demand for land is so great that a sideration. The most that can possibly be hoped landlord who is for any reason dissatisfied with for is that industry will be able to provide em- his tenant can evict him with relative ease. ployment for the greater part of the annual While custom and more recently the resistance increment in the laboring force without thought of organized tenant groups have exercised an of effecting a reduction in the farming popu- increasing restraint on this privilege, insecurity lation. of tenure remains a prime source of discontent among tenants. The wvide extent and unsatisfactory The tenants' difficulties, it should be realized, conditions of tenancy are attributable not so much to an exceptionally high rate of rent, for in fact the rate is not so Next to overcrowding on the land and a direct very much higher than in most Western coun- consequence of such overcrowding, widespread tries,' as it is to :he small size of his holding. tenancy under conditions highly unfavorable to An English tenan- farmer with 12 acres or an the tenant is the second most important evil American with 47 acres, average in those coun- plaguing the farming class. tries, can deliver 40 to 50 percent of his crop After the abolition of feudalism in 1871, to the landlord and still have enough for his only about 20 percent of the cultivated area own needs. The Japanese tenant, however, after was tilled by the tenants; but this proportion turning over half the output of his tiny one- rapidly increased. The small size of the indi- and-a-half or 2 acre plot often does not have vidual peasant holdings, making profitable enough left even for the barest subsistence. operation difficult if not impossible, and a Investigations have shown that 40 percent of heavy burden of taxation produced a mounting the tenants have to purchase rice before the indebtedness which caused many farmers to year is out (with income from subsidiary oc- lose their land. The lack of alternative em- cupations or with borrowed funds), and 20 ployment opportunities in industry or com- percent must start their purchases within six merce for those thus dispossessed and the fact months after the harvest. The intense competi- that landowners with more land than they tion for the land by the excessive number of could themselves cultivate could earn a larger farmers and the lack of alternative employment return by renting to tenants than by operating opportunities in other fields, however, leave with hired labor were important factors which Japanese tenants no choice but to pay the rent favored the growth of tenancy. By the end of demanded. the last decade, 28 percent of the farm house- The rent which weighs so heavily on the holds in Japan rented all of the land they tilled, and an additional 43 percent rented part. Thus 71 percent of the total number of farm house- 1. Tenant cotton and tobacco growers in the holds suffered the disadvantages of tenancy in United States generally turn over half their crop to some degree. Of the total cultivated area, 46 the landlord and grain farmers from 40 to 50 per- cent. While the landlord bears most of the cost of percent was rented. cotton and tobacco production-seed, fertilizer, and The rental for a one-crop field is about 50 so forth-grain farmers generally meet these costs percent of the crop, and for a two-crop field themselves. 572 APPENDIXES tenant, primarily, as explained, because of the yen per household. Fifty-six percent of the debt small size of his holding, affords the landlord was at that time (1937) held by moneylenders, only a moderate return on his investment. Al- 14 percent by the Hypothec Bank and the Agri- though the absolute amount of rent and income cultural and Industrial Bank, 13 percent by obtained per acre is large due chiefly to the private banks, and 17 percent by other financial high crop yields, the rate of return is small, institutions. about 4 percent,2 because of the exceptionally Although interest rates are high for all types high prices at which farming land sells in of borrowers in Japan because of the chronic Japan. In 1938 an acre of good paddy field shortage of capital, they have been highest by cost 2,620 yen (US$748) and upland 1,680 an appreciable margin in agriculture, averaging yen (US$479).;' (In this country an acre of between 12 and 15 percent per year and fre- good Iowa farmland cost about $80 in 1938 and quently totaling as much as 20 or 30 percent. in the more densely settled states such as New The annual charge on the farm debt consumed Jersey or New York up to $130.)' It is not almost a third of the net yearly farm income surprising that returns computed on the basis during the period 1931-35; and, in later of such highly inflated land values should be years when farm incomes were higher, it con- low. sumed between 18 and 20 percent. It should be noted that landlords who bought their land thirty or forty years ago (when population pressure was less intense and prices, Discriminatory fiscal and tariff policies accordingly, were lower) and receive the pre- vailing rate of rent earn a very large return on Notwithstanding the much lower per capita their investment. By and large, however, the productivity and average level of income in tenant's plight cannot be attributed to exces- agriculture than in industry, a farmer's taxes, sive landlord profits. There has in fact been a as the following table indicates, have been sub- noticeable tendency in recent years on the part stantially higher than those of a merchant or of the landlords to move their capital out of an industrialist with the same income. cultivated land into other investment fields, At the same time the farming class has re- notably industry, commerce, and urban real ceived much less than its proportionate share estate, where the return has been higher. in the expenditure of public funds, farm aid being only a fraction of the assistance afforded industry and trade. Also, farm products have A large volume of indebtedness been denied the tariff protection accorded many and high interest rates leading manufacturing industries. Imported Prior to the First World War the total farm food products have been admitted free or at debt in Japan was estimated at 750 million yen, very low rates of duty. or 135 yen per farming household. After that time the increasing disparity between farm in- . come and expenditure led to a rapidly mount- ing indebtedness so that in 1937 the debt Widely and sharply fluctuating prices for rice totaled more than 6 billion yen, or over 1,000 and raw silk, which have together comprised 65 percent of the total value of farm produc- tion, have been another factor contributing to 2. The landlord's return averaged 4.4 percent for the unhappy lot of the farmer. In the case of paddy fields and 3.7 percent for upland fields during rice, an inelastic demand in conjunction with the prewar decade. (Shiroshi Nasu, Aspects of Japa lre ariatis in onjucond th nese Agriculture [1941), p. 130.) large variations in the size of the crop, and the 3. The yen had an average value of 28.5 cents difficulty of controlling rice imports from the during 1938. colonies have been the principal causes of 4. These American figures might more properly price fluctuations. As for silk, approximately be compared with the Japanese yen figures quoted above than with their American equivalents, because 80 percent of the raw silk output has been sold a yen had approximately the same utility value to a in the United States and Europe where, being Japanese that a dollar has to an American. a luxury product, prices have varied widely in The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum 573 RELATIVE BURDEN OF DIRECT TAXES ON LANDOWNERS AND BUSINESS PROPRIETORS IN JAPAN-1929 Per capita taxes (in yen) Paid by farm landowners Paid by business proprietors Annual income Total National Local Total National Local 1,200 270 68 202 126 44 82 2,000 530 144 286 230 88 142 3,000 874 259 615 366 157 207 5,000 1,395 457 938 701 316 385 10,000 3,485 1,187 2,298 1,603 814 789 30,000 12,097 4,956 7,141 6,819 3,737 3,081 100,000 53,225 22,168 31,057 30,058 17,883 12,175 Source: Hioye Ouchi, "Tax Burden on Salaried Men and Farmers as Resealed by the Official Survey of their Livings," XIX Session de L'Institut International de Statistique Tokyo, 1930), p. 9. accordance with business conditions. Govern- markets. An even more important cause, how- ment efforts to stabilize the price of rice have ever, was the almost: complete substitution after met with at least some success, but in the case 1935 of rayon for natural silk in the rnanu- of silk they have been almost completely un- facture of broad goods and beginning in 1939 availing. the rapid replacement of silk by nylon in women's full-fashioned hosiery. The burden of The competition of cheap colonial this loss was borne mainly by the Japanese rice in the Japanese home market farming class, which in former times had ob- Rice ad dto Japanese taste .u tained approximate.y 20 percent of its income adapted tproduced from sericulture. If. as is expected, the substi- Korea and Formosa at approximately 25 per- tution of synthetic for natural silk continues cent lower cost than in Japan. Imports of rice, after the war, this important source of cash duty free, from these colonies to supply the income will be even further reduced. growing deficiency in Japan's domestic sup- plies during the last two decades have destroyed the monopolistic position formerly enjoyed by The high price of fertilizers domestic producers and have exerted a de- Artificial fertilizers are an essential element in pressing effect on prices. Because of the ready farm production in a country like Japan where availability of rice from Korea and Formosa, the soil has been depleted by centuries of in- the Japanese farmer, although suffering the full tensive cultivation. Recent experiments repre- effect of a price drop during years of good senting an average of results from soils all over crops, is almost never compensated by higher Japan show that in the absence of artificial prices during short years. With the exception fertilizers of any kind yields are 48 percent be- of the rice year 1939-40 when poor crops were low those of plots fully fertilized. Naturally harvested both in Japan and in the colonies, it is of great importance to farmers that they colonial rice has always been available to fill the should be able to obtain fertilizers at reason- market. able prices. The artificial fertilizer industry, A declining income from sericutture however, has set high, monopolistic prices which it has maintained with little regard for Japanese silk exports declined from $361 mil- fluctuations in the prices of farm products. Gov- lion in 1929 to $79 million in 1933. From ernment efforts since 1936 to reduce fertilizer 1934 to 1941 they remained in the neighbor- prices by bringing the industry under some hood of $110 million. In part the decline was measure of public control have not been suc- due to depressed business conditions in foreign cessful. 574 APPENDIXES Exploitation of farmers by middlemen Measures of Agrarian Reform in the marketing of their crops Middlemen, speculators, and petty traders have We have seen that the principal source of the long used their stronger bargaining position Japanese farmer's difficulties is an insufficient relative to the individual peasant to extract ex- area of land to till. Some five-and-a-half million cessive commissions for their services. Farm farm households must obtain a livelihood from cooperatives, which dispose of member's crops, only 15 million acres. Unfortunately, however, provide common warehousing facilities, and there is no prospect that this basic handicap furnish other joint services, have done much can be overcome, either through expansion of to overcome this evil but have not eliminated the farm acreage or output as a consequence o it. The poorest farmers who need the protec- war casualties or, at least in the foreseeable tion afforded by membership in a cooperative future, through the movement of the surplus most are frequently prevented by their poverty farming population into other occupations. It from becoming members and so remain at the can only be accepted and attention directed mercy of unscrupulous dealers. to the solution of other evils plaguing the The combined effect of these difficulties, as farming class. already indicated, is a very low standard of These evils, however, are both numerous and living in the farming districts. This standard, important. While many are a consequence of it is true, is materially higher than in feudal the basic difficulty of "too many men on too times in Japan or than in most other Oriental little land," they are not an inevitable conse- countries today. It must be remembered, how- quence and, it is believed, may be overcome ever, that Japanese farmers lived under the while that handicap still remains. The most worst possible conditions in the feudal period, important are (a) widespread tenancy under and over most of the Orient such conditions conditions highly unfavorable to the tenants, still prevail. Moreover, since the general plane (b) a heavy burden of farm indebtedness com- of living in Japan is higher than in other bined with high rates of interest on farm loans, Oriental countries, the Japanese having raised and (c) government fiscal policies which dis- themselves to a position in many respects closer criminate against agriculture in favor of in- to Western than to Oriental norms, the con- dustry and trade. sumption levels of the Japanese farming class are not fully comparable with those of most Widespread tenancy under conditions other Far Eastern farming populations. The highly unfavorable to the tenants more significant comparison is with the living standards of other sections of the Japanese Twenty-eight percent of the farming house- population which are materially better than holds in Japan rent all the land they till, and the farmer's. an additional 43 percent rent part. The rented The unsatisfactory state of Japanese agricul- area comprises 46 percent of the arable acre- ture has been like a cancer in the economic and age. Rentals are extremely high, considering the political life of the country. The large farming small size of the average holding; and the ten- class has remained a perpetually discontented ant must bear all expenses of the farm except element in the population and a principal sup- the land tax. Usually he is not even compensated port of the military program in which it has for necessary repairs and improvements he seen virtually the only hope of a solution of makes on the property. Living standards, while its economic ills. At the same time low farm low for all classes of Japanese farmers, are incomes and the small total purchasing power particularly low for the tenants who, in addi- of the farming districts have meant a restricted tion, can be evicted by the landlord with rela- domestic market for Japanese manufacturing tive ease. industry, contributing to dissatisfaction there. It is difficult to see how reasonably prosperous IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITIONS OF conditions and peaceful tendencies can prevail TENANCY. The tenancy problem may be ap- in Japan until conditions in agriculture have proached either with the idea of improving the been markedly improved. conditions of tenancy or of accomplishing the The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum 575 complete emancipation of the tenant class. Con- and forced to adopt the even less enviable sidering the former alternative first, the most status of hired farm workers. A situation would important handicap under which the tenant be likely to develop similar to that in Hungary, operates, the high rent, might be alleviated by Poland, and other Eastern European countries; setting a ceiling on farm rents, limiting them much of the land now being farmed by ten- by law to, let us say, 25 percent instead of the ants would be purchased by large owners who prevailing 50 to 60 percent. Also, the land- would convert them into big estates farmed by lords' right to evict their tenants might be hired workers under professional managers. made subject to stricter legal provision, afford- A further disadvantage of plans which seek ing the latter greater security in their right to merely to improve the conditions of tenancy till the land. Regulations requiring the land- would be that, even with a rent reduction of lords to compensate their tenants for needed as much as 50 percent and other significant re- improvements and to bear a larger proportion forms, conditions for those tenants who were of the costs of farm production (such as seeds, not evicted would still be highly unfavorable. fertilizers, tools, and taxes other than the land The average tenant's holding is so small that tax) would be ineffective if the landlord were a rent only half as large as at present still would still able to raise rents and offset any added not leave him an adequate income. Finally, costs to himself. But in combination with a since there would have been no fundamental rent ceiling they might be of help. change in landlord-tenant relationships (for This program suffers from several impor- the tenants who were not evicted), the land- tant disadvantages, however. Even under pres- lords, because of the continuing scarcity of ent conditions most landlords earn only a land and multiplicity of farmers seeking land moderate return on their investment;" and, to till, would still possess every advantage in while the absolute amount of the rent per acre dealing with their tenants and would probably is quite large due to the high yields, it is by succeed in gradually restoring the former con- no means exorbitant. The suggested reforms, ditions of tenancy. therefore, would so reduce the landlords' re- turn (if they did not entirely eliminate it) EXPROPRIATION OF ALL RENTED FARM- that many landlords would decide either to LAND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE TENANTS, cultivate the land themselves or to sell it. In COMPENSATION TO BE PROVIDED THE LAND- both cases this decision would result in the LORDS IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE PRO- eviction of the tenants already tilling the land. DUCTIVE VALUE OF THE LAND EXPROPRIATED. This would clearly follow if the landlord de- There are of course a large number of plans by cided to cultivate the land himself and would which the complete emancipation of the tenant be scarcely less certain to occur if he under- class might be effected, of which only one is took to sell it, as few tenants would possess the considered here. Under this plan all rented necessary funds to purchase their land. They farmland in Japan would be expropriated by might be able to buy over a long period of the government and turned over to the tenants time, say thirty or forty years; but then during in full title. The landlords would receive in that entire period they would be obtaining compensation government bonds in an amount little or no benefit from the reforms. Annual equal to the productive value (capitalized value payments toward the purchase of the land of the average net annual product) of the land would offset most of the gain from the reduc- expropriated. Such compensation would not be tion in rent and shifting of part of the costs paid until stable financial conditions have been of production to the landlord. Also the land- restored and bonds of enduring value could be lords would probably choose to sell to buyers delivered. If this should not be for some time who already had the purchase price available after the transfer had been effected, landlords Thus many tenants, far from benefiting from without other means of support might have to the reforms, would be driven from their land be assisted. 5. See above, under "Wide extent and unsatis- MARKET VALUE VERSUS PRODUCTIVE VALUE. factory conditions of tenancy." Undoubtedly the landlord class in submitting 576 APPENDIXES to the expropriation of their rented land would product of the land expropriated should not be demand compensation on the basis of the in- entertained. flated market value of their holdings. By the end of the last decade, however, the market THE ABILITY OF JAPANESE FINANCES TO price for farmland had been driven by the BEAR THE BURDEN OF COMPENSATION. It is intense demand for such land to a point 40 to believed that compensation computed on this 50 percent higher than its productive value basis would not impose too heavy a burden on (capitalized earning power). The only valid Japan's postwar government finances. In 1939 measure of an earning asset's worth is its earn- there were 6.8 million acres of rented farmland ing power. Demands for compensation in ex- in Japan with a total productive value of ap- cess of the capitalized value of the annual net proximately 8 billion yen: LAND TILLED BY TENANTS, 1939 Estimated average Total productive value productive Average market per acre (85 percent value value per acre of market value) (million Land type Acres (yen) (yen) yen) Irrigated fields 4,071,000 2,620 1,440 5,862 Dry fields 2,745,000 1,680 920 2,424 Interest of 4 percent on 8 billion yen worth of of agrarian reform, it would not be sufficient by bonds, assuming a value for the yen approxi- itself to accomplish the desired purposes. The mately the same as in 1939, would amount to basic handicap of an insufficient area of land 320 million yen a year, or only about 15 per- to till and many other evils would still remain cent of the average annual budgetary expenses so that, if this step were not accompanied by of Japan's national government during the others, the newly established freeholders would period 1931-36. At that time the tax rate still not have achieved a satisfactory economic in Japan was not excessive and an increase of status and would probably soon lose their land 320 million yen in the tax load could have again. Also, nothing would have been done to been borne without difficulty, as was subse- assist those farmers who at present own their quently shown. Naturally, the fact that the farms, many of whom, borne down by taxes debt would be owed within Japan would and debt, have been little better off than the greatly simplify the problem of its support; tenants. service on the bonds would involve no more The farming debt totaled approximately 6 than a transfer of wealth from one section of billion yen in 1937. During the period 1931- the population to another. It might be noted 35 the annual charge on this debt consumed that the United States expects to support a almost 30 percent of the average net yearly national debt ten times greater than in 1937 farm income; and, in later years when farm with a national income which even in the most incomes were substantially higher, it took from optimistic view will not be more than twice 18 to 20 percent. There is reason to believe, as large as at that time. however, that the debt has been considerably re- duced since that time. Exceptionally high farm incomes, the lack of spending outlets, and cur- A heavy burden of fain indebtedness and rency inflation are believed to have resulted in high r-ates of interest on farm loans the liquidation of a large proportion of the debt. Depending upon its size, part or all of While the emancipation of the tenant class the current debt might be assumed by the gov- would be the principal feature of a program ernment at such time as Japanese finances may The Atcheson-Fearey Memorandum 577 be able to take on this comparatively small features of a program of agrarian reform during additional burden. the occupation period. Simply by themselves Reduction or elimination of the existing they would result in a marked improvement debt would be of only temporary benefit if in the farmer's status. But even with this im- steps are not taken at the same time to ensure provement the Farmer's position, considering reasonable interest rates on new loans. Rates the large numbe. of farmers who must obtain have been high for all types of borrowers in a livelihood from so small an arable area, is Japan, but they have been highest by an ap- likely to be precarious. Consequently attention preciable margin in agriculture, averaging from should be directed also to the solution of other 12 to 15 percent per year and frequently difficulties from which the farming class has totaling as much as 20 or 30 percent. The suffered. principal cause of these high rates has been a large proportion of bad debts combined with FLUCTUATING PRICES FOR RICE AND SILK. the inability of farmers to provide adequate One such difficulty has been widely and sharply security. The improved credit standing of the fluctuating prices for rice and silk, which to- farmers as a consequence of the reforms herein gether comprise 65 percent of the value of farm proposed should do much to remove this diffi- production. In the past, efforts to stabilize the culty but would need to be supplemented by price of rice have suffered from a lack of other measures to ensure adequate supplies of funds, the difficulty of controlling rice im- loan capital to farmers at reasonable rates. A ports from the colonies, and an insufficient government farm loan agency might be set up determination on the part of the government and official support accorded private coopera- to make a success of the control program. With tive credit associations, which already exist in the elimination of all military expenditures Japan in fairly large numbers. Because most farm from the national budget, funds for this pur- loans are self-liquidating over a short period, pose should be more plentiful. Also, imports the chronic shortage of capital in Japan should from the colonies probably can be more easily not prevent the establishment of reasonable controlled when these areas are no longer an rates. integral part of the Japanese economic system and the interests of Japanese nationals engaged Discriminatory fiscal policies in Korean and Formosan rice production no We have seen that owners of farmland in longer have to be protected. Rice purchases Japan bear a disproportionately large share of from these areas can be regulated by the gov- the nation's tax burden. Beside the national ernment so as to offset crop variations in Japan and maintain stable prices. land tax, they must pay prefectural and town n .t ae i ere or village surtaxes and numerous local fees and In the case of silk the problem is more diffi- cult. Silk prices vary with business conditions taxes. With the elimination from the national budget of military expenditures of all kinds, it in overseas markets, which, of course, are be- will be possible to reduce taxes for all sections yond Jp s po to cnrl o raw sulk of the population; but in addition steps should costs so much to store because of the insur- be taken to bring about a more equitable dis- ane that plans to stabilize prices by controlling tbtion tof tn taxbur . Ts w requie s- the release of s:ocks from storage are not tribution of the tax burden. This will require racticable. Probably all that can be attempted revision of existing prefectural and local as y is asytmorei4pyettosrcluais well as national tax laws. Also, in the expendi- i system of relief payments to sericulturalists ture of public funds, the needs of agriculture in years of low prices from funds obtamed should receive equal consideration with in- dustry and trade, since they have not in the THE COMPETITION OF KOREAN AND FOR- past. MOSAN RICE. Japanese farmers would benefit greatly from a tariff on Korean and Formosan Other fields for reform rice, which in the past has entered Japan duty Measures regarding tenancy, indebtedness, and free. On the other hand such a tariff, through fiscal policy would constitute the principal its effect on food prices in Japan, would injure 578 APPENDIXES the country's export industries. Higher food needs at lower cost, but this is not an adequate prices would necessitate higher wages in in- solution of the problem. dustry, which in turn would reduce Japan's competitive advantage in international trade. EXPLOITATION OF FARMERS BY MIDDLEMEN Any reduction in trade would be to the disad- IN THE MARKETING OF THEIR CROPS. Finally, vantage of the entire country, agriculture in- steps should be taken to assist and protect the cluded. It would therefore seem that attention farmer in the marketing of his crops. In the should be directed to other methods of farm past, middlemen, speculators and petty traders aid less obstructive of the interests of industry have been able to take advantage of the farm- and trade and of Japanese economy as a whole. ers' urgent need for funds to extract excessive commission for their services. Farm coopera- A DECLINING INCOME FROM SERICULTURE. tives have been fairly successful in overcoming The expected further decline in the demand this evil, but their membership often does not for natural silk after the war is bound to have include the poorest farmers who need their pro- a serious effect on farm incomes. In recent years tection most. The cooperatives should be the farming class has derived from 12 to 16 strengthened in every way possible and their percent of its income from sericulture, which, membership expanded to include the less well- considering how close to a subsistence level to-do farmers. At the same time, the activities this class lives, has often meant the difference of private traders should be subjected to closer between just getting by and acute privation. regulation. There has already been some adjustment to the Of the above measures, tenancy reform is of loss of this business, chiefly through reduction predominant importance. Also, it would appear of the mulberry acreage in favor of other crops. that the second of the proposed solutions of It is important, however, that the farm popu- this problem, calling for the complete emanci- lation find other seasonal and part-time employ- pation of the tenant class, is much to be pre- ment in which the whole family can engage in ferred over the first for the reasons already partial replacement of the silk industry. Cer- stated and because any other reforms which tain small- and medium-scale industries nor- might be introduced would have only a limited mally found only in cities and towns have effectiveness if the tenants had not previously already proved adaptable to productive condi- been emancipated. As long as they were still tions in the rural areas. With study and investi- tenants, the 28 percent of the total number of gation, the number of these industries might farming households which rent all their land be considerably increased, providing the farmer and, to a lesser extent, the 43 percent who rent with the subsidiary employment he requires. a part would derive little benefit from a reduc- tion in interest rates, for example, or from a THE HIGH PRICE OF FERTILIZERS. Japanese 'more equitable distribution of the tax burden, farmers, who must use large quantities of arti- or lower fertilizer prices. The increase in net . have been greatly handicapped income obtained as a consequence of these re- ficial fertilizers, have b e y handica forms would be taken by the landlords, who by the high prices which they have had to pay would raise rents in the same proportion that for these fertilizers. Approximately 10 percent incomes were increased. A rent ceiling, for the of the farmer's gross income finds its way into reasons earlier stated, would likely result in a the pockets of the fertilizer monopoly every mass eviction of tenants, the landlords tilling year. It would seem that this industry either the land themselves or with hired labor. As should be taken over by the government as an long as the demand for farming land continues industry intimately affected with the public greatly to exceed the available supply, and the interest; or output, prices, and sales should be landlords, as a result, are able to establish the strictly controlled so as to assure farmers ade- terms of tenancy practically at will, they will quate supplies of fertilizers at lowest reason- be able to transfer to themselves the greater able prices. Joint purchasing arrangements have part of the benefits of whatever reforms are enabled some farmers to supply their fertilizer instituted. SCAP Directive 411 579 B. SCAP Directive 411 on Rural Land Reform This is the order issued by General MacArthur's office on December 9, 1945, instructing Ithe Japanese imperial government to submit by March 15, 1946, a program of rural land reform which would "insure that those who till the soil of Japan shall have more equal opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor." In terse military style, it enumerates the "more malevolent" of the "pernicious ills which have long blighted the agrarian structure" and instructs the Japanese government to incorporate in its land reform program proposals not only basic measures for dealing with the enumerated ills but also "provisions for reasonable protection of former tenants against reversion to tenancy status." Interestingly, this far-reaching order is signed by an assistant adjutant general with the rank of colonel. MEMORANDUM FOR: IMPERIAL JAPANESE c. A heavy burden of farm indebtedness com- GOVERNMENT bined with high rates of interest on farm THROUGH: Central Liaison Office, Tokyo loans. Farm indebtedness persists so that SUBJECT: Rural Land Reform less than half the total farm households are able to support themselves on their agricul- 1. In order that the Imperial Japanese Gov- ture income. ernment shall remove economic obstacles to d. Government fiscal policies which discrimi- the revival and strengthening of democratic nate against agriculture in favor of industry tendencies, establish respect for the dignity of and trade. Interest rates and direct taxes on man, and destroy the economic bondage which agriculture are more oppressive than those has enslaved the Japanese farmer to centuries in commerce and industry. of feudal oppression, the Japanese Imperial e. Authoritative government control over farm- Government is directed to take measures to ers and farm organizations without regard insure that those who till the soil of Japan for farmer interests. Arbitrary crop quotas shall have more equal opportunity to enjoy the established by disinterested control associa- fruits of their labor. tions often restrict the farmer in the cultiva- 2. The purpose of this order is to extermi- tion of crops for his own needs or economic nate those pernicious ills which have long advancement. Emancipation of the Japanese blighted the agrarian structure of a land where farmer cannot begin until such basic farm almost half the total population is engaged in evils are uprooted and destroyed. husbandry. The more malevolent of these ills include: 3. The Japanes2 Imperial Government is therefore ordered to submit to this Headquar- a. Intense overcrowding of land. Almost half ters on or before 15 March 1946 a program of the farm households in Japan till less than rural land reform. This program shall contain one and one-half acres each. plans for: b. Widespread tenancy under conditions highly unfavorable to tenants. More than three- a. Transfer of land ownership from absentee fourths of the farmers in Japan are either land owners to land operators. partially or totally tenants, paying rentals b. Provisions for purchase of farm lands from amounting to half or more of their annual non-operating owners at equitable rates. crops. c. Provisions for tenant purchase of land at an- 580 APPENDIXES nual installments commensurate with tenant nation by non-agrarian interests and dedi- income. cated to the economic and cultural advance- d. Provisions for reasonable protection of ment of the Japanese farmer. former tenants against reversion to tenancy e. The Japanese Imperial Government is status. Such necessary safeguards should in- requested to submit in addition to the above clude: (1) Access to long- and short-term such other proposals it deems necessary to farm credit at reasonable interest rates; (2) guarantee to agriculture a share of the na- measures to protect the farmer against ex- tional income commensurate with its con- ploitation by processors and distributors; tribution. (3) measures to stabilize prices of agricul- tural produce; (4) plans for the diffusion FOR THE SUPREME COMMANDER: of technical and other information of assis- tance to the agrarian population; and (5) a H. W. Allen program to foster and encourage an agricul- Colonel, A.G.D., tural co-operative movement free of domi- Asst. Adjutant General Chronological Bibliography of Wolf Ladejinsky Papers included in this publication or included in part are designated by an asterisk. The number of pages shown for unpublished papers is the actual number for the single-spaced papers and the estimated single-spaced equivalent for all others. *1. "Collectivization of Agriculture in the 7. "Soviet State Farms." Political Science Soviet Union." Political Science Quar- Quarterly (March-June 1938), pp. 60- terly (March-June 1934), pp. 1-43, 82, 207-32. 207-52. *8. "Soviet State Grain Farms." Foreign 2. "Soviet Harvesting and Procurement Agriculture (October 1938), pp. 439- Measures." Foreign Crops and Markets 54. (July 15, 1935), pp. 52-57. 9. "Agrarian Unrest in Japan." Foreign 3. "Agricultural Conditions in the Soviet Affairs (January 1939), pp. 426-33. Union." Foreign Crops and Markets * 10. "Agricultural Problems of India." For- (September 30, 1935), pp. 465-70. eign Agriculture (August 1939), pp. 4. "Agriculture in Manchuria-Possibilities 321-46. for Expansion." Foreign Agriculture *il. "Japan's Agricultural Crisis." Journal of (April 1937), pp. 157-82. Farm Economics (August 1939), pp. 5. "Farm Tenancy and Japanese Agricul- 614-31. ture." Foreign Agriculture (September *12. "Chosen's Agriculture and Its Prob- 1937), pp.425-46. lems." Foreign Agriculture (February 6. "The Japanese Cotton-Textile Industry 1940), pp. 95-122. and American Cotton." Foreign Agricul- 13. "Japan's Food Self-Sufficiency." Foreign ture (December 1937), pp. 589-618. Agriculture (June 1940), pp. 355-76. Chronological Bibliography of Wolf Ladejinsky 581 *14. "Agriculture of the Netherlands Indies." Allied Powers (SCAP), Natural Re- Foreign Agriculture (September 1940), sources Section, June 25, 1947, pp. 1-54. pp. 511-74. 29. - with William M. Gilmartin. 15. "Agriculture in British Malaya." Foreign "The Promise of Agrarian Reform in Agriculture (March 1941), pp. 103-25. Japan." Foreign Affairs (January 1948), *16. "Agricultural Policies of British Malaya." pp. 312-24. Foreign Agriculture (April 1941), pp. *30. "Trial Balance in Japan." Foreign Af- 159-64. fairs (October 1948), pp. 105-16. 17. "Manchurian Agriculture Under Japa- 31. "The Balance Sheet." (Alternative ver- nese Control." Foreign Agriculture (Au- sion to no. 30, unpublished, 1948), 17 gust 1941), pp. 309-40. pages. 18. "The Japanese Silk Industry Faces a 32. - with Warren H. Leonard and New Crisis." Foreign Agriculture (De- Mark B. Williamson. "Prospects for cember 1941), pp. 515-34. Japanese Agriculture." Foreign Agricul- 19. - with Fred J. Rossiter. "Food ture (November 1948), pp. 240-45. Situation in Far Eastern and Southeast- 33. - with Darrell Berrigan. "Japan's ern Asia." Foreign Agriculture (April Communists Lose a Battle." Saturday 1942),pp. 147-64. Evening Post (January 8, 1949), 4 20. "Thailand's Agricultural Economy." For- pages. eign Agriculture (May 1942), pp. 165- 34. "Land Reform Progress in Japan." For- 84. eign Agriculture (February 1949), pp. 21. "The Food Supply of India." Foreign 38-41. Agriculture (July 1942), pp. 265-81. *35. "The Rent Reduction Program in Tai- 22. "Australia's Agricultural Resources." wan: Field Observations." General Re- Foreign Agriculture (January 1943), port no. 1. Joint Commission on Rural pp. 3-24. Reconstruction, September 9-22, 1949, 23. "Food Situation in Asia." Annals of The pp. 166-80. American Academy of Political and So- *36. "Land Commissions in Japan." Septem- cial Science (January 1943), pp. 91-93. ber 1949. 24. "Island Agriculture in the South Pacific." *37. "Field Trip in Szechwan: Tenant Con- Foreign Agriculture (August 1943), pp. ditions and Rent Reduction Program." 178-84. General Report no. 1. Joint Commission 25. "Agriculture in Ceylon." Foreign Agri- on Rural 'Reconstruction, October 13- culture (January 1944), pp. 3-20. 20, 1949, pp. 148-64. 26. "Agriculture in Japan-Pre-War." For- 38. "Land Reform in Formosa." Foreign eign Agriculture (September 1945), pp. Agriculture (June 1950), pp. 130-35. 130-42. *39 "Too Late to Save Asia?" Saturday Re- 27. "Landlord vs. Tenant in Japan." Foreign view of Literature (July 22, 1950), 5 Agriculture (June 1947), pp. 83-88; pages. (July-August 1947), pp. 121-28. *40. "Rural Reconstruction under the China *28. "Farm Tenancy in Japan." Report no. 79. Aid Act." Foreign Agriculture (August Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the 1950), pp. 167-74. 582 APPENDIXES *41. "Observations on Rural Conditions in *53. "Comments on Land Reform in India." Taiwan." Joint Commission on Rural Ford Foundation Conference on Land Reconstruction, June 1951, 30 pages. Tenure, December 8-9, 1952, transcript, *42. "From a Landlord to a Land Reformer." pp. 45-72. Informal address at private dinner party *54. "A Comment on the Report of the Ford in Taiwan, June 1, 1951, 4 pages. Foundation Conference on Land Tenure, *43. "The Plow Oubids the Sword in Asia." 1952." Letter, March 23, 1953, 5 pages. Country Gentleman (June 1951), pp. 55. "Field Trip to Kyushu." U.S. State De- 65-68. partment Dispatch, July 1953, 29 pages.* 44. "Comments on Keiki Owada's paper, 56. "Japanese Food Supply, 1953-1954." 'Land Reform in Japan'." Conference on U.S. State Department Dispatch, No- World Land Tenure Problems, Univer- vember 30, 1953, 13 pages. sity of Wisconsin. University of Wiscon- 57. "Food Policy Council Established." U.S. sin, Papers, 1951, pp. 330-35. Also State Department Dispatch, January 12, published under the title "Land Reform 1954, 6 pages. in Japan: A Comment." In Land Ten- uie Edited by PaonsmPenIn, and R . *58. "The Status of the Land Reform Pro- ure. Edited by Parsons, Penn, and Raup. ga nIda"US tt eatet Madison: University of Wisconsin gram in India." U.S. State Department, Press, 1956, pp. 224-29. August 4,1954,18 pages. 45. "Agriculture," Japan. Hugh Borton, edi- *59. "Advancing Human Welfare." Ford tor. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univer- Foundation, November 1954, 13 pages. sity Press, July 1951, pp. 46-63. 60. "Group Meeting of Big Landlords of 46. "Japan's Land Reform." Foreign Agri- South Vietnam." U.S. State Department, culture (September 1951), pp. 187-89. March 18, 1955, 4 pages. 47. "Consolidation of Japanese Land Reform *61. "Field Trip Observations in Central Legislation." U.S. State Department Dis- Vietnam, April 2,1955." U.S. State De- patch, September 6, 1951, 7 pages. partment Dispatch, May 23, 1955, 18 pages. 48. "Report on Field Trip to Nagano Pre- . fecture," U.S. State Department Dis- *62. "Field Trip in South Vietnam, April patch, October 12, 1951, 23 pages. 1955." U.S. State Department Dispatch, April 29, 1955, 14 pages. 49. "The Occupation and Japanese Agricul- *63. "A Visit with President Ngo Dinh ture, October 1945-April 1952." U.S. Diem." U.S. State Department Dispatch, State Department Dispatch, June 3, June 15, 1955, 7 pages. 1952, 20 pages. *50. "Field Observations in the Punjab." U.S. 64. "South Vietnam Revisited, July 16, 1955." U.S. State Department Dispatch, State Department Dispatch, October 10, August 29, 1955, 32page 1952,11 pges.August 29, 1955, 32 pages. 1952, 11 pages. *51. "Land Reform Observations in Madras." 65. "The Cai San Refugee Resettlement U.S. State Department Dispatch, No- Project." April 28, 1956, 4 pages. vember 6, 1952, 25 pages. 66. "Developments in Cai San." June 4, *52. "Land Reform Observations in Kash- 1956, 4 pages. mir." U.S. State Department Dispatch, *67. "U.S. Aid for Land Reform in Vietnam." November 25, 1952, 17 pages. July 10, 1956, 4 pages. Chronological Bibliography of Wolf Ladejilnsky 583 *68. "Making the Proposed Land Reform Re- 81. Letter to Rishikesh Shaha, Minister of distribution Program More Practicable." Finance of Nepal. Ford Foundation, October 9, 1956, 7 pages. June 30, 1961, 6 pages. 69. "Cai San and Agrarian Reform." Octo- *82. "Agrarian Reform in the Republic of ber 18, 1956, 2 pages. Vietnam, 1961." Problems of Freedom. *70. "Towards a More Effective U.S. Aid East Lansing: Michigan State Univer- Program in Vietnam." November 15, sity, 1961, pp. 153-75. Also published 1956, 5 pages. as "Agrarian Reform in Free Vietnam." 71. "President Diem-An Informal Re- Stanford, California: Stanford Research port." Unpublished manuscript, undated Institute, `.968. B17-42. (probably July-August 1956), 12 pages. *83. "Corporate Farm Management for 72. "Agrarian Reform in Japan." A state- Japan?" June 7, 1961, 3 pages. ment to the Fourth International Catho- *84. "Tenurial Conditions in Nepal." Ford lic Congress on Rural Life, April 1-6, Foundation, February 15, 1962, 11 pages. 1957, 13 pages. 85. "Why a Ford Foundation Program in *72a. "Agrarian Revolution in Asia." A one- Nepal." Ford Foundation, March 15, page separate statement to the Fourth 1962, 7 pages. International Catholic Congress on Rural Life, April 1-6, 1957. 86. "Nepal's Development Intentions and Life Aprl 16, 157.Prospects." Ford Foundation, October 73. "Carrot and Stick in Rural China." For- 1962, 13 pages. eign Affairs (October 1957), pp. 94- 104. *87. "India After the China Border Clash." *74. "Agrarian Revolution in Japan." For- Ford Foundation, November 14, 1962, eign Affairs (October 1959), pp. 95- 2 pages. 109. *88. "Visit to the Philippines." Ford Founda- 75. "Vietnam: The First Five Years." Re- tion, January 17, 1963, 12 pages. porter (December 24, 1959), 4 pages. *89. "Agrarian Reform in Nepal." Ford *76. "Rural Communes in China." May 1960, Foundation, March 16, 1963, 4 pages. 10 pages. Published in somewhat 90. "Visit to Indonesia." Ford Foundation, abridged form in Reporter (October April 22, 1963, 9 pages. 27, 1960) under title "More than Mao *91. "Tenurial Conditions and the Package Can Chew." Program (in India)." Ford Foundation, *77. "Self-Description/Appraisal." June 15, 1963, 69 pages. Also published under 1960, 3 pages. same title by the Planning Commission, *78. "Exploration of job in Nepal." Ford Government of India, 1965, pp. 9-59. Foundation, November 21, 1960, 7 *92. "Land Reform in Indonesia." Ford pages. Foundation, February 27, 1964, 16 pages. *79. "Nepal's Five Year Plan." Ford Founda- *93. "The Industrialization Bias in Economic tion, November 28, 1960, 4 pages. Development." Excerpt from statement *80. "Land Reform in Indonesia." New to Conference on World Tensions, Feb- York: The Council on Economic and ruary [?] 1964, 6 pages. Cultural Affairs, January 24, 1961, 5 94. "Agrarian Reform in Asia." Foreign Af- pages. fairs (April 1964), pp. 445-60. 584 APPENDIXES *95. "Land Reform." Policies for Promoting *106. "Punjab Field Trip." World Bank, April Agricultural Development. Report on a 2, 1969, 15 pages. Published in Eco- conference held at M.I.T., June 29- nomic and Political Weekly (June 28, August 7, 1964. Edited by David Hap- 19691 under the title "Green Revolu- good. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965, tion in Punjab-A Field Trip." pp. 295-321. Also reprinted in Seven *107. "Bihar Field Trip." World Bank, July Articles on Land Reform. Asian Studies 29, 1969, 30 pages. Published in Eco- Papers, Reprint Series no. 2. East Lans- nomic and Political Weekly (September ing: Michigan State University, 1964- 27, 1969) under the title "Green Revo- 65. lution in Bihar-The Kosi Area." *96. "Agrarian Reform in India." India's 108. "Report of The All-India Rural Credit Economic Development Effort, vol. 4, Review Committee." World Bank, Octo- appendix 9. International Bank for Re- ber 6, 1969, 5 pages. construction and Development (WX/orld 109. "Note on Iran's Agricultural Coopera- Bank), October 1, 1965, 58 pages.. tives and Agro-Industries." World Bank, 97. "Community Development and Agricul- January 1970, 34 pages. tural Production." India's Economic De- *110. "Agriculture-Some Broader Considera- velopment Effort, vol. 4, appendix 10. tions." Economic Situation and Pros- World Bank, October 1, 1965, 39 pages. pects of India, vol. 1, ch. 5. World Bank, 98. "Cooperatives." India's Economic De- April 21, 1970, pp. 37-53. velopment Effort, vol. 5, appendix 11. 111. "Ironies of India's Green Revolution." World Bank, October 1, 1965, 43 pages. Foreign Affairs (July 1970), pp. 758- 99. "Administration, Panchayats and Agri- 68. cultural Development." India's Economic 112. "Rural Credit and The Nationalized Development Effort, vol. 5, appendix Banks." World Bank, August 19, 1970, 12. World Bank, October 1, 1965, 52 7 pages. pages. *113. "A Note on Agricultural Reforms." 100. "Traditional Agriculture and the Ejido." World Bank, August 1970, 10 pages. Current Economic Position and Pros- 114. "Agrarian Reform in Asia, The Green pects of Mexico, vol. 4, annex 7, part 2. Revolution and Its Reform Effects." World Bank, October 26, 1966, 55 28th International Congress of Orien- pages. talists, Canberra, January 6-12, 1971, 101. "Land Reform in Iran." World Bank, 22 pages. December 31, 1966, 25 pages. 115. "The Green Revolution and Rural Re- 102. "Land Revenue and the Abolition of the forms." Financial Times (January 25, Land Tax." World Bank, 1968, 9 pages. 1971),pp. 18-19. * 116. "Field Trip in Eastern Uttar Pradesh." *103. "The New Agricultural Strategy and In- World Bank, May 6, 1971, 7 pages. stitutional Factors." World Bank, June 1968, 40 pages. * 117. "Agriculture-Problems and Needs." Economic Situation and Prospects of 104. "A Note on Small Farmers." World India, vol. 1, ch. 3. World Bank, May 11, Bank, February 13, 1969, 14 pages. 1971, pp. 51-80. 105. "A Note on Institutional Problems." *118. "Refugees in West Bengal." World World Bank, March 31, 1969, 13 pages. Bank, August 28, 1971, 8 pages. Chronological Bibliography of Wolf Ladejinsky 585 119. "Land Ceilings and Land Reform in 1973, 19 pages. Published in Economic India." World Bank, October 13, 1971, and Political Weekly, Review of Agricul- 13 pages. Published in Economic and ture, vol. 8 (December 29, 1973) pp. Political Weekly, annual number (Feb- A133-44 under the same title. ruary 1972) under the same title. 132. "A Note on Small Farmers." World #120. "Agriculture-Issues and Programs." Bank, April 30, 1974, 5 pages. Economic Situation and Prospects of India, vol. 1, ch. 4. World Bank, May 10, 133. "The Rurml Scene." Economic Situation 1972, pp. 84-120. and Prospects of India, vol. 1, ch. 4. World Bank, May 7, 1974, pp. 103-33. 121. "The Land Ceiling Flap." World Bank, May 31, 1972, 16 pages. 134. "The Emergency Agricultural Produc- tion Program, 1972-1973 (Failure of a 122. "New Ceiling Round and Implementa- Program). World Bank, September 5, tion Prospects." Economic and Political 1974, 10 pages. Weekly (September 30, 1972), pp. 125-32. 135. "1974 Procurement Kharif (Summer) 123. "A Non-trip to Andhra Pradesh." World Crop Prices." World Bank, September Bank, October 5, 1972, 6 pages. 21, 1974, 7 pages. 124. "The Raj Committee Rural Taxation Re- # 136. "Agrarian Reform in the Philippines." port." World Bank, November 15, 1972, World Bank, October 7, 1974, 8 pages. 8 pages. 137. "Wheat Procurement in India in 1974 *125. "Drought in Maharashtra: Not in A and Relared Matters." December 16, Hundred Years." World Bank, January 1974, 30 pages. Published in World De- 12, 1973, 25 pages. Published in Eco- velopment (February-March 1975), pp. nomic and Political Weekly (February 91-111 under the same title. 17, 1973) pp. 383-96 under the same 138. "Food Shortage in West Bengal-Crisis title. or Chronic?" World Bank, December 16, *126. "The Rural Scene." Economic Situation 1974, 13 pages. Published in World De- and Prospects of India, vol. 1, ch. 5. velopmen (February 1976), under the World Bank, May 8, 1973, pp. 40-62. same title. 127. "Agrarian Reform in India." A State- 139. "Agricultural Production and Con- ment to a World Bank Land Reform straints." World Bank, February 13, Seminar. World Bank, May 1973, 7 1975, 13 pages. Published in World De- pages. velopmen, vol. 4, no. 1 (1976). 128. "The Failure of the Wheat Trade Take- 140. "Agricultural Prices Commission, Na- over." World Bank, August 13, 1973, tional Agricultural Commission and 20 pages. Wheat Procurement." World Bank, *129. "Agrarian Reform A la Punjab." World March 31, 1975, 8 pages. Bank, September 14, 1973, 11 pages. 141. "The Land Reform Program in Sri 130. "No Rice Takeover." World Bank, Octo- Lanka." World Bank, April 17, 1975, ber 13, 1973, 11 pages. 12 pages. 131. "How Green is the Indian Green Revo- 142. "Fertilizer Consumption in Punjab." lution?" World Bank, December 15, World Bank, April 28, 1975, 3 pages. 586 APPENDIXES Depository Libraries for the Ladejinsky Papers Louis J. Walinsky's original compilation of the papers of Wolf Ladejinsky included 97 of the items listed in the bibliography. A microfiche of this draft of the manuscript has been deposited in the following libraries, which are listed alphabetically by country. Australia France Bibliothbque de I'Unesco Australian National University Library Place de Fontenoy P.O. Box 4 Paris 7 Canberra Organisation de Coop6ration et de Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial D6veloppement Economiques, Research Organization Library Bibliothbque 314 Albert Street 2 Rue Andre Pascal Melbourne 3002 Paris 16 University of Melbourne Library Germany, Federal Republic of Parkville N2, Victoria Bibliothek des Instituts fur Weltwirts- Burma chaft und Zentralbibliothek der Wirtschaftswissenschaften in der fRangoon Bundesrepublik Deutschland Rangoon Postfach 809 Canada 23 Kiel-Wik Canada Department of Agriculture Library HWWA-Institut fir Wirtschaftsforschung- Sir John Carling Building Hamburg Ottawa Neuer Jungfernstieg 21 2 Hamburg 36 England India Bodleian Library. Oxfodn Uivrsy Allahabad Agricultural Oxford UInstitute Library P.O. Agricultural Institute The British Library Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh Great Russell Street Calcutta University Library Bloomsbury Asutosh Building London WC1 Calcutta 12 Institute of Development Studies Government Agricultural University of Sussex University Library Brighton, Sussex BN1 9RE Ludhiana School of Agriculture Library Punjab Cambridge University Indian Agricultural Research Downing Screer Institute Library Cambridge Pusa, New Delhi 12 Depository Libraries for the Ladejinsky Papers 587 Osmania University Library Kyoto University Library Hyderabad 7 Yoshida Hommachi, Sakyoku University of Bombay Library Kyoto Mayo Road Nagoya University Library Bombay 32 I Furo-cho, Chil:usa-ku Indonesia Nagoya-shi Perpustakaan Negara National Diet Library c/o Perwakilan Departemen P.D. 1-10, 1-chome, Nagata-cho dan K Kalimantan Tengah Chiyoda-ku Palangkaraya Tokyo Okayama University Library Iran Tsushima, Melli (National) Library Okayama-shi Teheran Osaka City University Library Israel Sugimotocho 459 Jewish National and University Library Sumiyoshi-ku Hebrew University Campus Osaka Jerusalem Tokyo Agricultural University Library Ministry of Agricultural Central Library 4-461 Setagaya Hakiria Setagaya-ku Tel Aviv Tokyo National and University Institute Tokyo University of Agriculture of Agriculture Library and Technology Library P.O. Box 12 P.O.D. Musahi-Fuchu Rehovoth Tokyo Tokyo University Library Italy Hongo 7-chome, Bunkyo-ku Biblioteca David Lubin Tokyo Food and Agriculture Organization Viale delle Terme di Caracalla Yamaguchi University Library 00100 Rome Kameyama Biblioteca del Ministero dell'Agricoltura e Yamaguchi-shi Foreste Korea Via XX Settembre 20 00187 Rome Korean Development Institute P.O. Box 113 Japan Cheongryang Hiroshima University Library Seoul Higashi-senda-machi National Central Library Hiroshima-shi Sogong-dong, Jung-gu Hitotsubashi University Library Seoul 185 Kunitachimachi Seoul National University Library Kitatamagun 31 Tongsung-dong, Chongno-ku Tokyo Seoul Institute of Developing Economies Library Malaysia 42 Ichigaya-Hommura-cho Shinjuku-ku University of Malaya Library Tokyo 162 Kuala Lumpur 588 APPENDIXES Netherlands Taiwan Provincial College of Koninklijk Institut voor de Tropen Agricultural Library Central Library, Royal Tropical Institute 250 Kuo-Kuang Road Centrale Boekerij, Mauritskade 63 Nan-chu, Taichung Amsterdam Thailand Library of the Agricultural University Chulalongkorn University Library General Foulkesweg la, Phya Thai Road Wageningen Bangkok New Zealand United States National Library of New Zealand Library of Congress Private Bag 1st and East Capitol Streets Wellington Washington, D.C. 20540 Philippines National Agricultural Library University of the Philippines Library U.S. Department of Agriculture Diliman, Quezon City 14th and Independence Avenue SW Singapore Washington, D.C. 20250 University of Singapore Library University of California Library Bukit Timah Road Davis, California 95616 University of Wisconsin Libraries Taiwan (Republic of China) Madison, Wisconsin 53706 National Taiwan University Library Roosevelt Road Vietnam Taipei Biblioth6que Nationale de la R4publique D6mocratique du Viet-Nam 31 rue Trang-Thi Hanoi INDEX Numbers in italics refer to entries in the Chronological Bibliography (CB), pp. 580-85. Abdullah, S. M., land reform and: benefits, 188; ity of, 432-35, 440; technology and, 406, implementation, 179, 196, 200, 210; policies, 432-34, 495-96 180, 181, 183, 184, 185 -large-scale: in British Malaya, 62, 63, 65; in Abolition of the Big Landed Estates Act of Netherlands Indies, 60; in South Vietnam by 1950 (India), 180-81, 183-85, 186 French, 245, 256-57, 301 Acre, standard: definition of, 379, 544n -in Nepal: implementation problems of, 291- Action Program for Cooperative Credit (India), 95; objectives of 334; political implications 414 and, 291, 294-95; resource utilization and, Agra Tenancy Act (India), 33-34 294 Agrarian Law of 1960 (Indonesia), 342 -small-scale: in British Malaya, 62, 63-64; in Agrarian reform. See Land reform India, 452-54, 465-68, 509-10; in Korea, Agreements. See Leases 49; in Soviet Union, 23, 24-27 Agricultural administration, CB-99 Agricultural Refinance Corporation (ARC) Agricultural Co-operative Association (Japan), (India), 468--69, 505 79, 82 Aid, external, 1-16, 206, 207, CB-59, 67, 70; Agricultural Credit Agency (South Vietnam), by India to Nepal, 293; to Netherlands 308 Indies, 59 Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited -by United States, 197; to China, 136, 141; (India), 420, 470 to Latin America, 136; to Nepal, 293; to Agricultural and Industrial Bank (Japan), 42 South Vietnam, 250-51, 264-67, 268-70, Agricultural Land Adjustment Act of 1938 273-79; to Taiwan, 141, 145 (Japan), 84 Akbar, M. J., 5 [9n, 529n Agricultural Land Adjustment Law Enforce- All-India Congress Committee, 188 ment Order (Japan), 111 All-India National Commission on Agriculture, Agricultural production, 364; in China, 115-16; 441, 508-09 in Indonesia, 59, 349-52; in Japan, 24, 45, All-India Rural Credit Review Committee, 55, 570; in Netherlands Indies, 58-59; in 508-09 South Vietnam, 231, 266; in United States, All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference 288. See also specific crops (India), 180 -in India, 36, 371-73; credit for, 338-39; Allee, Ralph, 297, 298 development of, 384-87, 564-65; drought Anarchy. See Conflict, political and, 515, 532, 533, 534; emphasis on, 405- Andhra Pradesh (India), 163, 379; Commu- 07; IADP and, 373, 407; improvement of, nism in, 132, 401; credit cooperatives in, 373, 539; problems of, 24, 30-39; program 415; crop loans in, 417; legislation in, 337; for, 500-05; prospects for, 536-40; prosper- rent in, 371n, 380; rural programs in, 503; 589 590 INDEX sociological neglect in, 406; tenancy in, 157, Bihar Tenancy Act of 1885 (India), 457 378; village voice in, 426 Binh Xuyen, 239, 240, 241, 244, 253-54 Annam. See Central Vietnam Bolshevik Party (Soviet Union), 148-49 Arbitration. See Litigation Bombay Banking Enquiry Committee (India), ARC (Agricultural Refinance Corporation) 32 (India), 468-69, 505 Botanic Gardens (Singapore), 64 Asia, CB-19, 23, 39, 43, 72a, 94, 114 Bowles, Chester, 6, 20-21, 154-55, 198 Assassinations in Japan, 44, 85 British Malaya, CB-15, 16. See also specific Archeson-Fearey memorandum, 5-6, 569-78 entries Australia (and South Pacific Islands), CB-22, Brunner, Edmund de Schweintz, 51n, 52n, 54n 24 Buck, Lossing, 74n, 89 Autonomous Rice Control Law of 1936 Buffaloes. See Cattle (Japan), 44 Buffer stocks in India, 533, 534 Bullocks. See Cattle Bachman, K. L., 407n, 429n Bureau of Food (Taiwan), 139 Bali (Indonesia): land reform in, 340-41, Bureau of Statistics (Japan), 43-44 342, 343, 347, 348; lease contracts, 343-44; tenancy status in, 344, 351 Bangladesh. See Refugees in India from East CADP (comprehensive development project) Pakistan (India), 564-65 Banks, land development: in India, 413, 414- Cao Dai: American aid and, 250-51; conflict 15, 421, 469-70, 505 with, 239, 240, 244, 246; control by, 230, Bao Dai, 215, 253-54, 302, 307 236, 241, 248, 249-50, 251; French and, Beg, M. M. A., 179, 181, 182-83, 184, 185, 186 242; land reform policies of, 246; President Bell report (India), 413, 414, 415 Diem and, 241, 253; tenant conditions Bengal Tenancy Act of 1859 (India), 33 under, 249; tenant-landlord relations under, Benson, Ezra Taft, 3n, 215 250; villages, 247, 249-50. See also Tac, Benton, Thomas Hart, 154, 287 Pham-Cong Better Living Societies (India), 35 Capitalism in Soviet Union, 27 Bhagvati Committee on Unemployment Cattle: in India, 37, 479, 516, 524-26; in (India), 504 South Vietnam, 219, 258, 265; in Thailand, Bihar (India): agricultural production in, 406; 265 cooperatives in, 448-49; credit in, 448-49, Ceiling Act (India), 391 461; double occupations in, 443; fertilizer Central Board of Irrigation (India), 37 in, 447, 448-49; Green Revolution and, 442, Central Land Reform Committee (India), 511 453, 459-60, 461-62; irrigation in, 442, Central Vietnam, CB-61; buffaloes in, 219; 445-47, 453, 454; jute production in, 444; characteristics of, 219-22; condition of, 218- labor in, 450-51, 452; land ceilings in, 457- 19; credit in, 221; debt in, 221; education in, 58; land holding size in, 453; land reform 221-22; land ownership in, 219-20, 222, legislation in, 194, 337, 457, 458-59; land 224, 226-27; landlords in, 220, 223-25; transfer in, 375; land values in, 449-50; marketplaces in, 221; moneylenders in, 221; landlords in, 377, 457; litigation in, 458; national army and, 228; political conflicts in, moneylenders in, 449; occupancy rights in, 228-29; political tasks in, 227-28; popula- 192, 457; rent in, 380, 457; rice production tion pressure on land in, 219; rent reduction in, 444-45; sharecroppers in, 455, 456-57; in, 217, 222-23, 224; resettlement in, 223; small farmers in, 452-54; taccavi loans in, taxes in, 220-21; tenancy records in, 218, 448; technology in, 441, 442-43, 452-54; 220; tenant status in, 220 tube wells in, 446, 447; wages in, 450, 451- -land reform program in: attitude toward, 52; wheat in, 443-44 223, 224; goal of, 228; limitations of, 226- -tenancy in, 191, 391; conditions of, 454-55, 27; politics of, 225-26; provisions of, 222- 460-61; restoration of, 458; security of, 457; 23 status of, 455, 461 Ceylon. See Sri Lanka Index 591 Chang, Chun, 118, 148 304; opposition of, 299, 310, 312; taxes and, Chen, Tsi Liu, 120, 122, 127 302; threat of, 278. See also Binh Xuyen; Cheng, Chen, 17, 20, 142; Communism and, Hoa Hao; Viet Minh 132; land reform implementation by, 144, Community development, CB-97 145, 151; rent reduction and, 105, 107 Compensation, landlord, 359; in India, 183-85, Chiang, Mon-lin, 95, 114, 136, 137, 148; China 187-88, 370, 377, 575-76; in South Vietnam, aid program costs and, 141; land reform and, 274, 308 134; rent reduction and, 123 Comprehensive development project (CADP) China, People's Republic of. See Kwangsi; (India), 564-65 Kwantung; Manchuria; Szechwan; specific Conciliation of Tnancy Disputes Bill of 1924 entries (Japan), 46, 83 China, Republic of. See Taiwan Conference of the state chief ministers (India), China Aid Act of 1948, 134, 136 483-84 Chinese Association of Land Reform, 148 Conference on Productivity and Innovation in Chosen (Korea), CB-12. See also specific Agriculture in Underdeveloped Countries, entries 315, 354 Chosen Agricultural Lands Ordinance of 1934 Conference on Social Development and Wel- (Korea), 53 fare in Vietnam (1959), 299 Chosen Tenants Arbitration Ordinance of 1932 Conference on World Tensions, 315, 352 (Korea), 53 Conferences: on economic development, 315, Christensen, R. P., 407n, 429n 354, 474; by Ford Foundation, 67, 189, 198; Cochin-China. See South Vietnam in India, 180, 420, 483-84; on land tenure, Cocoons. See Prices (in Japan, for silk) 189, 198-201; on rural life, 279; on wel- Collective bargaining. See Tenant unions fare, 299; on world tensions, 315, 352 Collectivization: of agriculture, CB-1, 4, 8, 73, Conflict, political: between China and India, 76; in China, 131, 287, 295; Communism 324; between China and Japan, 47, 48; in and, 209, 287; in Soviet Union, 23, 24-27, India, 132, 175, 196, 324, 528-29; in Nepal, 28-29, 287, 289. See also Cooperatives 291, 292, 294-95. See also Communism; Colonialism. See Occupation, colonial Revolution, agrarian Columbia University Conference on Interna- -in South Vie:nam, 234, 237-38, 253-54, tional Economic Development, 474 275-76, 295; with Cao Dai, 239, 240, 244, Comindari, 192 246; with Hoa Hao, 239, 241-42, 254; with Commission on Social Policy (Japan), 83 Viet Minh, 228-29 Commission on Tenancy (Japan), 83 Congress Party (India): election of, 166; land Communism, 130-35, 150, 275; agrarian revo- reform and, 193, 196, 202, 212; nonpar- lution and, 279-81, 300; in Burma, 132, 288; ticipation of, 163, 167; role of, 400-02, 404 in China, 117, 129; collectivization and, 209, Congress Working Committee (India), 188 287; human welfare and, 204, 205-06, 208- Contagious Diseases of Animals Act (India), 09; in Indonesia, 132; land ownership and, 37 151; land reform and, 12, 13-14, 356; land- Contracts. See Leases lords and, 280; in Nepal, 292, 295; in North Cooperative Societies Department (British Vietnam, 276, 299, 310; in Pakistan, 132; Malaya), 64-'5 in Philippines, 326; political goals of, 129, Cooperatives: agricultural, CB-98, 109; in 353; in Soviet Union, 24-29, 148, 280, 287 British Malaya, 64-65; in Japan, 46-48, 79, -in India: influence of, 131, 132-33, 288, 485; 82; in Soviet Union, 23, 24-27, 28-29; in land grab and, 485; land ownership and, Taiwan, 106. See also Credit cooperatives 168-69; land reform and, 165-66, 167-68; -in India, 34-7; assessment of, 422-28; crop rent and, 169-70, 195; uprisings of, 132 program and, 414-15; environmental factors -in Japan, 132, 149, 151-52, 153-54; failure of, 423-24; future role of, 428-31; historical of, 288; strength of, 286; threat of, 281 factors of, 423-24; legislation for, 387; -in South Vietnam, 254, 288; attitude toward, marketing by, 416; membership of, 507; 225, 226, 270; control of, 302; influence of, politics and, 427-28; problems of, 413-14; 592 INDEX reform obstruction and, 426-27; village in- Department of Agriculture (Japan). See Min- terests and, 425-26 istry of Agriculture and Forestry (Japan) Corporate farms in Japan, 312-14 Department of Agriculture (Taiwan), 139 Cotton production in Korea, 57 Department of Agriculture of the United Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CSRE) Provinces (India), 36 (India), 501, 502 Departmental Examination of Deputy Com- Crawford, John, 367, 560 missioners and Tehsildars for 1951 (India), Credit, 467; agricultural, CB-108, 112; in 186 British Malaya, 64-65; in China, 137; in Deposit money in China, 123-25 Japan, 42, 44-45, 48, 84-85, 86; in Korea, DFS (Dry Farming Scheme) (India), 501-02 54-55; in South Vietnam, 221, 265, 266; in Diem, Ngo Dinh, 7, 8, 17, 20, 215, 244; Taiwan, 106, 146-47 attitude toward, 276, 305; Communist op- -in India, 212, 424, 467; agricultural produc- position to, 299; Japan and, 239, 243; land tion, 338-39; crop loan, 416-18, 337, 419, reform and, 222, 238, 240, 268-75, 303, 448; drought, 529; fertilizer, 447; irrigation, 307, 312; land transfer and, 310; local 446; program, 502-03; refugee, 492; small administration and, 241; refugee settlement farmer, 509-10; sources of, 448-49, 461 and, 240-41; rural impressions and, 217; Credit cooperatives, in India, 338, 413-22, sect conflict with, 241-42, 253-54 468-70, 505-11; distribution of, 507-08; Dier (Japan), 83 integrated, 508-10; nature of, 505-06; per- Disputes, tenant-landlord. See Litigation formance of, 478; sources of, 413, 414-15, Domaine Agricole de l'Ouest (South Vietnam), 448-49, 461 245, 301 Credit institutions: in Japan, 42, 76; in South Domaine Gressier (South Vietnam), 256-57 Vietnam, 308 Double cropping in South Vietnam, 266 Crop share. See Rent Drought in India, CB-125; conditions of, 514, Crops: in Taiwan, seed project for, 140 517; consequences of, 514, 528, 529-31, -in India: buffer, 533, 534; disaster conse- 532-35; credit and, 529; employment and, quences for, 515-16; high-yielding, 410, 517, 518-20, 523; expenditures for, 533; 414-15; karif, 515-16, 517; loans for, 337, food shortages and, 520-22, 559; irrigation 416-18, 419, 448; rabi, 515-16, 517 for, 517, 518, 533-34; production and, 515, CSRE (Crash Scheme for Rural Employment) 532, 533, 534; rebellion and, 528-29; refu- (India), 501, 502 gees and, 527-28; relief for, 518-20, 522-23, Cultivation. See Agricultural production; Land 533-34; wages and, 520; water shortages cultivation acreage and, 515, 516, 526-27 Dry Farming Scheme (DFs) (India), 501-02 Dandekar, V. M., 466n, 484n Darling, Malcolm L., 186, 394, 434 East Pakistan. See Refugees in India Debt, rural: in British Malaya, 64-65; in ECA (Economic Cooperation Administration), India, 30-32, 186-87; in Japan, 42, 79, 572, 128, 134, 135, 145 576-77; Japanese legislation on, 45, 47, 48, Economic development, CB-93 86; in Korea, 54-55; in South Vietnam, 221, Education: in British Malaya, 63, 64; in Japan, 302 112-13; in Philippines, 325, 331; in South Debt Conciliation Act of 1933 (India), 31 Vietnam, 221-22. See also Extension serv- Debt relief: in India, 187; in Korea, 55-57 ices in India Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879 Employment in India, 384, 387, 436-38, 464; (India), 30-31 creation of, 504; double, 443; drought and, Deeds in India, 30-31 517, 518-20, 523; industrialization and, 539; Department (or Ministry) for Agrarian Re- lack of, 504; prospects for, 438-39; refugee form (South Vietnam), 247, 272, 273, 310 restrictions on, 490-91; scheme for, 501, Department of Agriculture (British Malaya), 502; technology and, 436, 438-39. See also 64 Labor Index 593 Enforcement Committee for Farm Rent Reduc- Ford Foundation: aid program in Nepal, 293, tion (Taiwan), 99 315; conferences by, 67, 189, 198; human Eviction. See Tenant eviction welfare and, 209-11; India-China border Executive Yuan (China), 99, 114, 118 clash and, 324; land reform and, 197, 315, Expenditures, capital: in India, 174, 201, 501- 325, 330-31, 336; report by, 204, 207. See 02; in Japan, 282. See also Aid, external also Intensive agricultural district program Expenses, agricultural. See Rent (IADP) Exports, agricultural: by Korea, 573, 577-78; Foreign aid. See Aid, external by Netherlands Indies, 60; by Soviet Union, Foreign Operations Administration (FOA) 27; by Taiwan, 573, 577-78 (South Vietnam), 240 Extension services in India, 36-37; education Foreign policy of United States, 128, 129, and, 410; official view of, 407; reform of, 133-34, 242, 278 411-13; technology and, 409-10; village-level Foreign relations: India and, 276; South Viet- workers and, 407-09, 412-13 nam and, 242, 276, 278 Formosa. See Taiwan Famine. See Food Formosa Provincial Department of Agriculture Famine Commission of 1900 (India), 31 and Forestry, 139 Farm Adjustment War of 1938 (Japan), 47 Formosa Provincial Department of Reconstruc- Farm Debt Adjustment Act (Japan), 45 tion, 139 Farmer-Labor Party (Japan), 81 Formosa Provincial Health Administration and Farmers' Patriotic Association (Japan), 82 National Institute of Health, 139 Farmers' Service Society (India), 509-10 Formosa Provincial Veterinary Serum Institute, Farming. See Agricultural production 139 Fearey, Robert, 5-6, 569 Fourth International Catholic Congress on February Revolution of 1917 (Soviet Union), Rural Life, 279 25 French occupation in South Vietnam, 218, 234, Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements, 239, 240, 309; Cao Dai and, 242; enterprises 65 of, 244-45, 256-57, 301; land reform and, Fertilizer: in India, 447, 478-79; in Japan, 257; rent and, 256, 257; revolution and, 186, 43, 45, 573, 578; in South Vietnam, 265-66; 199, 395; security and, 228 in Taiwan, 147, 266 French Revolution, 186, 199, 395 Feudalism: in India, 172-73; in South Viet- nam, 305; in Soviet Union, 134, 148 -in Japan, 69, 70, 72, 73-74; Meiji Era and, Gandhi, Indira, 17, 472, 483, 513, 518 70n, 80, 284, 285; Taisho Era and, 90; Gandhi, Mohandas. Karamchand, 393, 431, 485 Tokugawa regime and, 73, 284 Gant, George, 289, 290 Fifteenth Party Congress (Soviet Union), 27 Government procurement, CB-128, 130, 135, Floud Commission (India), 161 137 FOA (Foreign Operations Administration) Grain. See specific crops (South Vietnam), 240 Grajdanzev, Andrew J., 72n, 77n Fodder shortages in India, 516, 517, 524-26 Green Revolution in India, CB-103, 111, 115, Food, CB-13, 19, 21, 23, 56, 57, 138; projec- 131; consequences of, 432, 442, 463-65, tions in India, 537-38, 539. See also specific 535-36; crop production and, 494-95, 496, crops 534; farm labor and, 536; income distribu- -consumption: in China, 116; in Indonesia, tion and, 498; landless and, 535-36, 472; 350 landowners and, 535; limitations of, 459-60, -shortages: in Asia, 353; in India, 31, 516, 461-62; technology and, 436, 439, 453, 520-22, 524-26, 557-58, 559-61; in In- 478-79, 536; tenants and, 472, 536 donesia, 349-51; in Korea, 56 Grist, D. H., 64n, 65n -supply: in India, 558, 559-60, 563-64; in Gruel kitchens it India, 559-61 Netherlands Indies, 60 Gujarat (India), 337, 380, 391, 420 Food Corporation (India), 419 Gujarat State Cooperative Conference, 420 594 INDEX Harchard Singh Committee (India), 543-44, Indian Immigration Fund (British Malaya), 547-48 62-63 Harijans, 163, 165, 172, 173 Indonesia, CB-14, 80, 90, 92. See also Bali; Harmony unions (Japan), 82 Java; Sumatra; specific entries Haryana (India), 414 Industrialization: bias, 353-54; in Brazil, 328; Hill, Dr., 292, 293 in India, 38, 539; in Netherlands Indies, 59- Hoa Hao: conflict with, 239, 241-42, 254; 60; in Soviet Union, 23, 25-27, 29 control by, 230, 236, 237 Institutional factors, CB-103, 105, 139 Hoi, Nguyen Van, 233, 236, 238 Integrated Agricultural Credit Service (India), Hokkaido (Japan): cultivation rate in, 70, 509 71-72, 73; land commissions in, 109; land Intensive Agricultural District Program (IADP) purchase in, 85; lease contracts in, 75; rents (India), 336-40, 373, 407 in, 76; tenant unions in, 81 Interest rates: in India, 30, 34; in Korea, 54- Honshu (Japan), 70-71, 73, 81 55; in Japan, 43, 47, 572, 577 Huk movement, 326 International Institute of Agriculture, 36 Human welfare, 67-68; Communist effect on, International Rice Research Institute (Philip- 204, 205-06, 208-09; economic development pines), 325, 331 and, 208-09; Ford Foundation role in, 209- Investment. See Aid, external 11; goals of, 204; in India, 208; land reform Iran, CB-101, 109 and, 209-11; magnitude of problem of, Irrigation: in China, 138-39, 140; in Philip- 204-06; program identification for, 206-08; pines, 326; in South Vietnam, 266; in technical assistance for, 207, 212-14; West- Taiwan, 103-04, 138-39 ern influence on, 206, 209, 212-13 -in India, 37; credit for, 446; drought and, Hypothec Bank (Japan), 42, 76 517, 518, 533-34; minor, 503-04; project development for, 442, 445-47, 480, 481; IADP. See Intensive Agricultural District Pro- rights for, 473-74; tube wells, 446, 447, 476- gram 77, 480, 481 ICA (International Cooperation Administra- Isobe, Hidetoshi, 40n, 43n, 78n tion), 277, 278 Illiteracy: in China, 137-38; in India, 31, 35, Jagirdars, 179, 180 37-38 Jammu. See Kashmir Immigrants: in British Malaya, 62-65; in Jammu and Kashmir Distressed Debtors' Relief Manchuria, 46; in South Vietnam, 246. See Act of 1949, 187 also Refugees Jammu and Kashmir State Evacuees (Admin- Imperial Agricultural Association (Japan), 82 istration of Property) Act (India), 186 Imperial Council of Agriculture (India), 36 Janmi, 175, 176 Imports, agricultural: by Indonesia, 350; by Japan, CB-5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 18, 26-34, 36, 44- Japan, 573, 577-78; by Korea, 55; by Soviet 49, 55-57, 72, 74, 83. See also Hokkaido; Union, 27 Honshu; Kyushu; specific entries Income: in British Malaya, 63; in Korea, 53- Japan Farmers' Union, 81 54; in Japan, 43, 77-78 Japanese Landowners' Association, 82 -in India, 170, 450, 451-52, 498; gap in, 440- Java (Indonesia) : agricultural productivity in, 41; legislation on, 171; refugees and, 491; 59; food consumption in, 350; immigrant scales for, 436-38, 520 labor in, 62; land availability in, 349; land India, 367, 405-07, 462, 495-99, CB-10, 21, reform in, 297-98, 340-41, 342, 347, 349; 50-54, 58, 87, 91, 96-99, 102-08, 110-13, land registration in, 345; land retention in, 115-35, 137-40, 142; see also Andhra 346; lease contracts in, 343-44; tenancy Pradesh; Bihar; Gujarat; Kashmir; Kerala; status in, 344, 351 Madras; Maharashtra; Punjab; Tamil Nadu; JCRR. See Joint (U.S. and China) Commission West Bengal; specific entries on Rural Reconstruction Indian Immigration Committee (British Ma- Joint (U.S. and China) Commission on Rural laya), 62, 63 Reconstruction (JCRR), 14; China Aid Act Index 595 and, 134, 136; irrigation and, 138-39; Labor: in India, 168, 384-86, 450-51, 452. program costs of, 139, 140, 141-42; program -in British Malaya: from China, 62, 65; from organization of, 139-40; project selection India, 62-64; f:om Java, 62 and, 138; results of, 140-41 Land, evacuee: in India, 543-48; in South -in China, 135, 137, 140; credit and, 137; Vietnam, 305 illiteracy and, 137-38; leases and, 123; pro- Land, private: in Taiwan, 147 gram goals of, 137-38; rent reduction pro- Land, public: in Taiwan, 106; in South Viet- gram and, 127-28, 134, 135 nam, 219-20, 224 -in Taiwan: programs by, 135, 137-40, 143, Land Bank (Philippines), 554, 555 145; rent reduction program and, 95, 108, Land bonds: in Philippines, 555; in South 134; tenancy evasions and, 101-02 Vietnam, 308 Jute production in India, 444 Land Bureau (Taiwan), 105 Land ceilings: in Japan, 358; in Nepal, 333; in Taiwan, 358; in West Pakistan, 358-59 Kanamdars, 175, 176 -in India, 212, 381-82, 395, 457-58, 472-73, Kashmir (India): conditions in, 179-80; con- 476, 483-84; guidelines for, 511; impor- ference in, 180; debt in, 186-87; eviction in, tance of, 513; legislation for, 391, 511-12, 180, 182-83; land commission selection in, 540-41; revision of, 512-13 186; land transfer in, 199, 200; landlords in, Land Code of 1926 (British Malaya), 61, 62 180, 183-85, 187-88; rent in, 180, 380; Land commissions: in China, 125-27; in India, tenancy terms in, 180, 183 186; in Indonesia, 346-47; in Japan, 109-12, -land reform in: benefits of, 188; farmer dis- 113, 152, 363; in South Vietnam, 274-75; in cussions on, 181-82; implementation of, 179, Taiwan under Japanese, 104, 105, 106 196, 200, 210; legislation on, 179-80, 186, Land committees: in India, 337, 338, 379-80, 187, 188-89, 196, 210; policies for, 180, 181, 511; in Indonesia, 348; in Philippines, 553- 183, 184, 185 54; in South Vietnam, 272, 302-03 Kashmir State Tenancy Act of 1924 (India), Land Compensation Committee (India), 184 179-80 Land consolidation in India, 35, 374-76, 480 Kawada, S., 46n, 52n, 75n, 84n, 87n, 88n Land councils in South Vietnam, 274, 308 Kerala (India), 381, 396, 484, 485 Land cultivation acreage, 70; in Japan, 69-70, Kerensky, Aleksandr F., 148, 149 71-72, 73, 75; in South Vietnam, 231; in Khanh, Nguyen, 235-36, 237, 238 United States, 366 Kharif crops in India, 445, 515-16, 517, 531 Land Development Banks (India), 505 Khusro, A. M.: agricultural production and, Land distribution: in India, 371-73, 381, 477; 407n; credit and, 419n, 424; employment in in Indonesia, 347, 349; in Japan, 71-72; in agriculture and, 384-86; eviction and, 378- Korea, 49-50; in South Vietnam, 307, 309; 79; food shortages and, 495n; income dis- in Taiwan, 96 tribution and, 498n; mechanization and, Land division: in British Malaya, 61-62; in 497n; occupancy rights and, 383; tenancy India, 180-81, 183-85, 186 extent and, 372 Land expropriation. See Land grabbing Kimura, Magohachiro, 41n, 43n, 76n Land fragmentation in India, 35-36, 373-74 Kipling, Rudyard, 130, 208, 404 Land grabbing: in India, 180-81, 482, 483, Koirala, Prime Minister, 17, 292, 294-96 484-86, 542--50; in Japan, 575 Korea (Chosen), CB-12. See also specific Land holding: in China, 116; in India, 406-07, entries 452-53; in Japan, 40, 48, 70-71, 366; in Krishna, Raj, 372n, 382n, 387n, 407n Nepal, 318; in South Vietnam, 220, 226-27, Kulaks, 25-26 231, 246, 271-72, 273, 306, 307, 308 Kuomintang Party Conference (China), 117, Land improvements: in India, 33, 370; in 118 Japan, 69-7), 282; in South Vietnam, 264 Kwangsi (China), 121, 128, 129, 130, 137, 140 Land occupation. See French occupation in South Kwantung (China), 117, 137, 140 Vietnam; Occupation, colonial; Occupation, Kyushu (Japan), 73, 81 military 596 INDEX Land ownership, 356, 361; Communism and, ings of, 426-27, 431; status of, 211-12; 151; in Korea, 50-53; in Netherlands Indies, support for, 392-93. See also specific regions 60; in Taiwan, 106. See also Land ceilings; -in Indonesia, 348; agreement for, 343-44; Landlords nature of, 297-98; proliferation of, 347; re- -in India, 156-61, 163, 565; Communism sults of, 341-44, 347, 349 and, 168-69; legislation for, 180, 339, 391- -in Japan, 5, 6, 167, 355, 395, 579-80; ad- 92, 484 ministration of, 363, 400; attitude toward, -in Japan, 40, 86-89, 281-82, 313; develop- 356; factors of, 86; limitations of, 92; pro- ment of, 69; incentive for, 345; protection grain for, 152-54, 199, 569-70, 574-78; of, 580 setting for, 281; success of, 226 -in South Vietnam, 263-64, 301, 306; public, -in Nepal, 211, 289-90, 319-20; administra- 219-20, 224; UsoM and, 265, 266, 273-74 tion of, 320-21; opposition to, 321; short- Land payment terms, 360-61; in Philippines, comings of, 332-35 554, 555; in South Vietnam, 271, 306-07, -in South Vietnam, 233, 234-38, 252, 299- 308-09 300, 307, 312; acceptance of, 305; adminis- Land policy: in British Malaya, 62; in India, tration of, 264, 269, 308; attitude toward, 197, 202, 211, 338; in South Vietnam, 222, 261-64; elections for, 232; French and, 257; 224-25, 230; in Soviet Union, 294, 300 implementation of, 247-48, 273, 299, 305; Land prices: in India, 159, 160-61, 381, 392, politics and, 222, 224-25, 228, 230; program 396-97, 543, 545; in Indonesia, 298, 346; for, 222-27, 271-75; reaction to, 232. See in Japan, 87-88, 152, 359, 381; in Philip- also Diem, Ngo Dinh pines, 554; in South Vietnam, 308, 309; in -in Taiwan, 134, 151, 289, 355; attitude Taiwan, 359 toward, 356; implementation of, 144, 145, Land purchase, 359-61; in China, 123-24; in 151 India, 156, 191, 391, 396-97; in Japan, 84- Land Reform Act of 1957 (Nepal), 317-18, 86, 110, 113, 152; in Philippines, 361; in 319-20 South Vietnam, 264, 266, 268; in Taiwan, Land Reform Bill of 1945 (Japan), 79, 86 103, 107, 144, 147, 360, 397 Land registration in Indonesia, 345-46 Land reform, 197, 315, 357-58, CB-29, 34-38, Land reservations in British Malaya, 62, 65 44, 46, 47, 50-54, 58, 68, 69, 72, 80, 82, 89, Land resumption, landlord: in India, 339, 357, 92, 94-96, 100, 101, 113-15, 119, 121, 122, 379-80, 457, 482-83; in South Vietnam, 127, 129, 136, 141; in British Malaya, 62; 224-25, 232-33, 250 condition of, 355; human welfare and, 209- Land retention, landlord: in Indonesia, 346; in 11; implementation, 361; in Korea, 289; South Vietnam, 271-72, 273, 307, 308 leadership for, 353, 361-62; in Philippines, Land Revenue Reforms Committee of Madras 325, 330-31, 361, 551-53, 555-56; political of 1950 (Subramanian Committee) (India), implications of, 356, 361; political stability 171 and, 364-65; pressure for, 366; prospects Land sale: in India, 562-63; in Japan, 88-89, for, 365-66. See also Legislation, land reform 110, 113, 152, 281, 286; in Nepal, 319; in -in China, 137, 148, 289; opposition to, 119- South Vietnam, 309-11, 312; in Taiwan, 103 21, 134, 135 Land survey: in India, 375; in Nepal, 320; in -in India, 21-22, 289, 336, 361, 565; admin- South Vietnam, 273 istration of, 398-400; assessment of, 202-03; Land tax, CB-102, 124; in India, 171, 179, 377, assistance for, 201; from below, 393-95, 401, 480-81; in Japan, 43, 74, 572, 577, 579; in 483; conditions for, 369-70; implementa- Nepal, 317, 322-23, 333; in South Vietnam, tion of, 382-83, 474-75, 538; obstacles to, 220-21, 225, 234, 247, 259, 302; in Taiwan, 188, 371, 402-03, 426-27, 502-05; policy 146 for, 197, 202, 211, 338; political role in, 193, Land tenure. See Tenancy 196, 202, 212; programs for, 403-04, 500- Land transfer: in India, 199, 200, 338, 339, 02; project identification and, 503; proposals 375-76; in Iran, 199, 334; in Japan, 345, for, 471-74; recommendations for, 404; re- 579-80; in Korea, 361; in South Vietnam, sults of, 362; review of, 390-93; shortcom- 273, 310; in Soviet Union, 29, 149, 289 Index 597 Land valuation: in Indonesia, 348-49; in India, of Tenure) Amendment Act of 1951; 434-36, 449-50; in Japan, 69-70; in Nepal, Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyal (Protection) 322, 323; in Philippines, 553-55; in South Ordinance of 1952 Vietnam, 258; in Taiwan, 99, 105-06, 107. -in Indonesia: enforcement of, 298, 343, 345, See also Land prices 348; occupancy rights, 344; provisions of, Landlessness in India, 34, 383-87, 501, 502, 343, 346; purpose of 341-42; shortcomings 561-62 of, 297-99, 345, 349; tenancy status, 344-45 Landlords: in China, 117, 119-21, 134, 135; -in Japan: farm debt, 45, 47, 86; land com- Communism and, 280; in Japan, 41-42, 46, missions and, :.11; rent, 79; rice, 44; tenancy, 71-72, 80, 83; in Korea, 50, 52-53; in 46, 83-84 Nepal, 321; in South Vietnam, 220, 223-25, Lenin, N., 25, 26, 131, 148-49, 314 232-33, 248, 304, 310; in Soviet Union, Liu, Wen-hui, 122, 128, 135 280; in Taiwan, 103. See also Compensation; Linh, Nguyen Ngoc, 247, 248, 257 Feudalism; Land resumption; Land retention Litigation: in India, 30-32, 458; in Japan, 41- -in India, 33, 192-93; abolition of, 180, 183- 43, 45-46, 80--83; in Korea, 52-53; in South 85, 187-88; absentee, 162, 172; legislation Vietnam, 305 and, 169, 171; opposition by, 402-03; types Livestock. See Cattle of, 175, 176, 179, 180, 192. See also Loans. See Credit; Credit cooperatives; Credit Zamindari institutions; Moneylenders Latex. See Rubber production Los Bafios Agricultural College (Philippines), Leases: in China, 116, 119-20, 122-23, 125, 325, 331 126; in Great Britain, 90; in India, 337, 371; Luc, Mayor, 249 251 in Japan, 74-75, 80, 83, 90; in Taiwan, 97, 99 MacArthur, Douglas, 17, 148; Communism -contracts for: in China, 119, 121; in India, and, 132, 151-52, 153-54; free enterprise 370; in Indonesia, 343-44; in Japan, 75, 91- and, 200 92; in South Vietnam, 247, 248, 262, 305; -Japanese land reform and, 3, 5-6, 19-20, in Taiwan, 97-98, 99, 103, 357 287; background of, 150; directive by, 152, Lee, Hoon K., 49n, 51n, 55n 281, 569, 579-80; implementation of, 149, Legislation, land reform, 356; in British Malaya, 152-53 61-62; in China, 119, 121, 122-23; in McDiarmid, Orville, 487, 491, 492 Korea, 53; in Nepal, 317-18, 319-20, 321- McNamara, Robert, 17, 474, 550, 557 22; in Philippines, 551; in South Vietnam, Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code (India), 222-23, 302-04, 305, 307-08; in Taiwan, 391-92 95, 122-23 Madras (India): agricultural production in, -in India, 164, 202-03; British colonial, 376- 373; capital expenditures in, 174; class ex- 77; cooperatives and, 387; debt, 30-32, 187; ploitation in, 172-73; conditions in, 162-65, effects of, 181-82, 183, 471-72; estate divi- 167-68, 171--72, 173-75, 177; cooperatives sion, 180-81, 183-85, 186; eviction, 337; in, 34, 415; cultivation expenses in, 166, income and, 171; lack of, 163, 175-76, 177, 167-68, 169-70, 193; debt relief in, 187; 194, 195-96, 337, 396; land ceiling, 511-12, eviction in, 165, 166, 170-71, 174-75, 176; 540-41; land consolidation, 35; land distribu- land ownership in, 163, 168-69; land reform tion, 381; land expropriation, 180-81; land in, 177-78; land transfer in, 339; landlords ownership, 180, 339, 391-92, 484; landlord, in, 162, 169, 172; loans in, 338-39; occu- 169, 171; as obstacle, 371; recommendations pancy rights in, 339; rebellion in, 175, 196; for, 339-40; rent control, 180, 371n, 392, revenue in, 171; sociological neglect in, 406; 435; revenue collection, 179; shortcomings village-level workers in, 408-09; wages in, of, 210, 340, 371, 378-79, 390, 398; tenancy 170; water 3upply in, 172. See also Tamil security, 155, 180, 457, 458-59, 542-43; Nadu tenancy status, 33-34, 174, 176-77, 337, -Communism in: crop share and, 169-70; 391; zamindari abolition, 190-92, 194, 202, land ownership and, 168-69; land reform 397, 471. See also Punjab Tenants (Security and, 165-66, 167-78; rent and, 195 598 INDEX -legislation in, 164; debt, 32; lack of, 163, 40; leases and, 75; living standard and, 77- 175-76, 177, 194, 195-96; recommendations 78; rent and, 41; rice surplus and, 44 for, 339-40; tenancy status, 174, 176-77, 337 Ministry of Finance (Japan), 87 -rent in, 193; Communism and, 195; crop Ministry of Food and Agriculture (India), 202 share as, 163, 172; landlord's attitude toward, Mitra, Asok, 16, 495n 174-75; reduction of, 339, 380 Moneylenders: in British Malaya, 64-65; in -tenancy in, 336, 337; records of, 338-39; India, 30-32, 34, 420, 449; in South Vietnam, security of, 166, 170; system of, 175-76; 221 terms of, 172, 174-75 Monsoon in India, 515, 531 Madras Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1938 Mortgages: in India, 30-31; in Japan, 74 (India), 32 Moyer, Raymond, 109, 289; Communism and, Maharashtra (India): cattle in, 516, 524-26; 206; human welfare and, 213; JCRR and, credit in, 504-05; crop disaster consequences 136, 137; rent reduction and, 95, 114; U.S. in, 515-16; fodder shortages in, 516, 524-- assistance in South Vietnam and, 268 26; land prices in, 392; monsoon in, 515; Muafidars, 179 rents in, 337, 380; wheat production in, Mukarraries, 179 515-16, 517. See also Drought Mukerjee, Radhakamal, 34, 376n Mahendra, Bir Shah Deva, 17, 315, 316-23, 332-35 Nagpur resolution (India), 387 Maize in India, 409-10 Nasu, Shiroshi: eviction and, 81n; income and, Malabar Tenancy Act of 1929 (India), 174, 77n; land prices and, 88n; land utilization 176 and, 40n, 42n, 44, 48n; tenancy leases and, Malabar Tenancy Act of 1951 (India), 176-77 75n Malabar Tenants Improvements Compensation National Committee for Agrarian Reform Act (India), 176 (South Vietnam), 272, 302-03 Malay Reservation Act of 1913 (British National Cooperative Farming Advisory Board Malaya), 62 (India), 389 Malaya Reservations Committee, 65 National Council for Agrarian Reform (South Manchuria, CB-4, 17 Vietnam), 274, 308 Marcos, Ferdinand, 17, 550, 551, 557 National Council of the ci (Communist Party Marginal Farmers and Landless Laborers of India), 485 Scheme (MFAL), (India), 501, 502 National Development Council (India), 390, Marketing, rural: in India, 416; in Japan, 574, 392 578; in South Vietnam, 221 National Rice and Corn Administration Marx, Karl, 131, 287 (Philippines), 326 Mayuram Award of 1948 (India), 165, 168 National United Front (South Vietnam), 254. Mechanization, agricultural: in British Malaya, See also Binh Xuyen; Communism in South 64; in India, 384, 479-80, 496-98; in South Vietnam; Hoa Hao; Viet Minh Vietnam, 245; in Soviet Union, 27, 29 Nationalist control in South Vietnam, 228, 246- Meiji Era (Japan), 70n, 80, 284, 285 49 Menon, K. Ramuni, 166, 324 Neale, Walter C., 377n, 393n, 394, 395, 399n Mensheviks Party (Soviet Union), 148 Nehru, Jawaharlal, 132-33, 177, 196, 209, 536 Mexico, CB-100 Nepal, 296, CB-78, 79, 81, 84-86, 89. See also MFAL (Marginal Farmers and Landless Labor- specific entries ers Scheme) (India), 501, 502 Netherlands Indies. See Indonesia; specific Migration. See Immigrants; Refugees entries Minhas, R. S., 462, 499, 500 New Economic Policy (Soviet Union), 25 Ministry (or Department) for Agrarian Re- New York Conference on Land Tenure (1952), form (South Vietnam), 247, 272, 273, 310 189, 198-201 Ministry (or Department) of Agriculture and Noncredit societies in India, 35, 510-11 Forestry (Japan): debt and, 42; land com- Norman, E. Herbert, 80n, 285 missions and, 111, 112; land ownership and, North Vietnam, 269, 299, 310 Index 599 Occupancy rights, tenant: in India, 170, 194, Poverty. See Tenant conditions 339, 377, 383, 457; in Indonesia, 344; in Presidential Decree No. 27 (Philippines), 551 Nepal, 320; in Taiwan, 357. See also Leases Prices, agricultural: in Korea for rice, 55; in Occupation, colonial: by British in British Taiwan, 143-44, 146 Malaya, 61-62, 64, 65; by Dutch in Nether- -in India: decline of, 30; for wheat, 433-34 lands Indies, 58-60 -in Japan: for ferrilizer, 45, 573, 578; for rice, Occupation, entrepreneurial. See French occupa- 42-44, 76-78, 572-73, 577; for silk, 42, 43, tion in South Vietnam 44-45, 572-73, 577-78 Occupation, military: by Japan in Korea, 24, Public Works Administration (Taiwan), 139 51, 52, 57-58; by Japan in Taiwan, 104, 105, Public works program: in India, 501; in Korea, 106 56-57; in Taiwan, 139 -by Allies in Japan, 132, 148, 149-50, 151- Punjab (India): agricultural productivity in, 54; accomplishments of, 93-95, 149-50, 152- 432-34; cooperatives in, 34, 35-36; credit 54, 287. See also MacArthur, Douglas in, 421; debt relief in, 187; employment in, October Revolution of 1917 (Soviet Union), 436-39; evacuee land in, 543-48; evictions 25 in, 157-59, 194, 212, 543; Green Revolution Okinawa (Japan), 73, 76 in, 432, 436, 4.9; income gap in, 440-41; Organic Regulations of Chosen Prefectural, land fragmentation in, 373; land grabbing by District and Island Tenant Committees state in, 542-50: land ownership in, 156-61; (Korea), 53 land prices in, :159, 160-61, 381, 543, 545; Oriental Development Company (Japan), 52 land purchase in, 156; land reform in, 155- Overdues in India, 415-16, 506-07 61, 392, 441-42, 542-50; land values in, 434-36; mechanization in, 384, 496-97; oc- Pakistan. See Refugees in India cupancy rights in, 193; prosperity in, 432-35, Panchayats, 538 440; rent in, 156, 158, 160, 194-95, 371n, Pannaiyal, 165, 166, 168, 170-71 435-36; technology in, 436, 438-39; tenancy Patwari, 156, 157, 397n, 399-400, 546-47 in, 155-59, 160, 208-09, 435-36; wage Peasant Proprietors' Agricultural Land Bill of scales in, 436-38; wheat in, 432-34 1932 (Japan), 46 -legislation: on debt, 31; effects of, 157-60, Peasants. See Tenants 194; enforcement of, 195, 196; remedial People's Party (India), 189 measures for, 160-61; on tenancy security, Perez, Roderigo, 327, 328 155-57, 337, 435, 542-43 Philippines, 330, 331, CB-88, 136. See also Punjab Regulation of Accounts Bill of 1930 specific entries (India), 31 Planning Board (Nepal), 290, 291, 292 Punjab Security of Land Tenure Act of 1953 Planning Commission (India), 30; eviction (India), 435, 542-43 and, 378; first five-year plan and, 377-78; Punjab Tenants Security of Tenure Act of 1950 land ceilings and, 382; land policy and, 197, (India), 155, 156, 159 202, 211; landlord compensation and, 188; Punjab Tenants Security of Tenure Amendment Panel on Land Reform and, 377, 378, 379- Act of 1951 (India): enforcement of, 159- 80; recommendations by, 177, 336, 396-98; 60; provisions of, 156; remedies for, 160-61; report to, 154, 155; role of, 404; tenancy shortcomings of, 157-59 distribution and, 372 Plantations. See Agricultural production, large- scale Rabi crops in India, 445, 515-16, 517, 531 Planter's Loans Fund (British Malaya), 65 Radio Hanoi, 299, 310 Point IV program, 94, 136 Rainfall in India, 37, 515. See also Drought in Pope, Cao Dai. See Tac, Pham-Cong India Population pressure on land, 366; in India, Rajagopahachari, C., 169, 170 38-39, 203, 384-87; in Japan, 40, 68-69, Rajasthan (India), 380, 392, 473-74 70-71, 151, 570-71, 579; in South Vietnam, Ram, Jagjivan, 429-30, 441 219; in Taiwan, 95-96 Rebellion. See Conflict, political 600 INDEX Red Flag Association (India), 167, 195 in, 119-21, 134, 135; lease contracts under, Records, tenancy: in India, 337, 338-39, 397- 119-20 98, 482; in South Vietnam, 218, 220, 231 -in Taiwan, 95, 357; acceptance of, 105; Refugees in India, 487-92, 527-28, 563; land benefits of, 103, 128, 129, 134, 140; campaign of, 543-48; from West Pakistan, 521 committees and, 104-05; evasions of, 101'- -from East Pakistan, CB-118; absorption of, 02; failings of, 100-08; provisions of, 93- 491; attitude toward, 490; description of, 101; results of, 142-47 488-89; dispersal of, 488-89; employment Reparations from Japan to South Vietnam, 239, restrictions on, 490-91; living conditions of, 243 489-90; motivation of, 488; numbers of Report of the Trustees of the Ford Foundatios 487-88; provisions for, 489-90; wages for, (1950), 204, 207 491 Research in India, 36-37, 411 Refugees in South Vietnam, 223, 240-41, 246, Reserve Bank (India), 413, 414-15 305-06 Resettlement. See Immigrants; Refugees Regulation on the Enforcement of Farm Rent Revenue. See Land tax Reduction in Szechwan Province (China), Revolution, agrarian: Communism and, 279-81, 95, 122-23 300; in France, 186, 199, 395; in Japan, 47, Regulation, Registration and Revision of Farm 279-88; in Soviet Union, 23, 25, 148; in Contracts (China), 119, 121 Taiwan, 279-80 Reinhardt, Ambassador, 239, 270 Rice: in China, 115-16; in India, 30, 444-45, Religion: in India, 393; in South Vietnam, see 534, 558-59; in Indonesia, 349, 350, 356; in Cao Dai; Hoa Hao; Tac, Pham-Cong Korea, 55, 573, 577-78; in Philippines, 325, Rent, 355; in British Malaya, 62; in China, 95, 326, 331; in South Vietnam, 244-45, 246, 114, 117, 118-19, 121-23, 127-28, 134, 135, 256, 301. See also Rent 141; in Indonesia, 343-44; in Japan, 41, 76, -in Japan: crop share of, 41, 76, 78, 571-72; 78, 79, 571-72; in Korea, 52; in Nepal, 318, imports of, 573, 577-78; legislation for, 44; 319-20, 332-33, 334, 357; in Philippines, prices of, 42, 44, 76-78, 572-73, 577; sur- 326-27; in United States, 571n plus, 44; yields of, 42, 151, 282-83 -in India, 370, 373, 391; control of, 337-38, -in Taiwan: consumption of, 97; crop share 396; legislation on, 180, 371n, 392, 435; of, 96-97, 99, 100-01, 106-07; exports of, Rent Court and, 339; under zamindari areas, 573, 577-78 190-91, 371, 376-77; Communism and, 169- Rinderpest, 139 70, 195. See also specific regions Roxas, Sixto, 327, 331 -in South Vietnam, 230, 255-56, 258, 262- Royal Commission on Agrarian Reform 63, 305; attitude toward, 217; French and, (Nepal), 319-20, 321 256, 257; Viet Minh and, 217, 225. See also Royal Commission on Agriculture (India), 39; Rent reduction program in South Vietnam agricultural research and, 36-37; coopera- -in Taiwan, 45, 96-97, 98, 99, 100-01, 357; tives and, 35, 36; debt and, 31n; illiteracy black market in, 101, 102; sugar cane and, and, 38; irrigation and, 37; land fragmenta- 106-07. See also Rent reduction program in tion and, 373 Taiwan Royal Commission on Taxation and Birra Rent Court (India), 339 Abolition (Nepal), 323 Rent reduction program, 232-33, 312, 356-57; Rubber production: in British Malaya, 61, 62, in India, 357, 482; in Japan, 90, 264, 357 63, 64, 65; in Netherlands Indies, 60; in. -in South Vietnam: effects of, 224, 236-37, South Vietnam, 244 264, 266; landlords and, 232-33; legislation Rubber Research Institute of Malaya, 64 for, 222-23, 302-04 Rural Works Program (RWP) (India), 501 -in Szechwan (China), 114-15, 117-18; as- sessment of, 127-29; deposit money under, 123-25; evictions under, 122-23, 126; im- Sadjarwo, Minister, 17, 109, 340-52 plementation of, 118-26; land commissions Samurai, 284 under, 125-27; landlords' nonparticipation Savings: in Korea, 56; in Japan, 79 Index 601 SCAP. See Supreme Commander for the Allied 140; land holding size in, 116; lease contracts Powers in, 116, 122-23; rent in, 95, 114, 118-19, Schools. See Education 121-23, 127-28; rice in, 115-16; tenancy in, Scissors problem: in Taiwan, 143; in Soviet 115-17 Union, 26 Seed project in Taiwan, 140 Tac, Pham-Cong, 241, 249; attitude toward Self-Help Movement (Korea), 56-57 Bao Dai, 253-54; attitude toward National Sen, Ranjit, 498n, 499n United Front, 254; attitude toward President Seredniaki, 26 Diem, 253; church of, 251; description of, Serfdom. See Feudalism 251-52; economics of, 252; land reform and, Settlements. See Litigation 252; political power struggle and, 253-54; SFDA. See Small Farmer Development Agency religion of, 252-53 Sharecroppers: in India, 455, 456-57; in Japan, Taccavi loans, 419, 448-49 75 Taisho Era, 90 Shen, Tsung-han, 95, 117, 136, 148 Taiwan (Republic of China), CB-35, 37, 38, Siberia (Soviet Union), 148 40, 41, 73, 76. S?e also specific entries Silk, 42, 43, 44-45, 572-73, 577-78 Taiwan Sugar Corporation, 106, 142, 146 Singh, Srinath, 479, 495n Tan, Nguyen Van, 230, 233, 302-03, 307 Sino-Japanese War, 47, 48 Tamil Nadu (India), 473, 483-84 Small Farmer Development Agency (sFDA) Tanjore Kisan Movement, 169 (India), 466-68, 501, 502-03, 509 Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyal (Protection) Small farmers, CB-104, 132. See also Agricul- Ordinance of 1952 (India), 162; background tural production, small-scale; Tenants of, 164, 166; evaluation of, 169-71; exemp- Socialism. See Collectivization tions to, 171; farm labor and, 168; landlords South Keisho Province (Korea), 51, 54 and, 169, 171; official attitude and, 166, 176; South Korea. See Korea; specific entries provisions of, 166, 195; rent reduction and, South Vietnam, 215-16, 265, CB-60-71, 75, 371n; shortcomings of, 163; tenants' rights 82; and Cochin-China, 230; economic condi- and, 167-68, 170; wages and, 171 tion of, 276, 303, 311-12; journalistic atti- Tariff policies in Japan, 572 tude toward, 277. See also Central Vietnam; Taxes. See Land taK specific entries Technology in India, 442-43; consequences of, Soviet Union, CB- 1, 2, 3, 7, 8. See also specific 494-95, 496, 499; employment and, 436, entries 438-39; extension services and, 409-10; land Sri Lanka (Ceylon), CB-25, 141 reform and, 539; production and, 406, 432- Srinagar Board (India), 187 34, 495-96; scope of, 441; small farmers and Stalin, J., 25n, 27n, 131, 132 452-54; social implications of, 462-65. See Sterilization in India, 409 also Industrialization; Mechanization, agri- Subramanian Committee (Land Revenue Re- cultural forms Committee of Madras of 1950), 171 Temporary Farm Debts Liquidation Law of Sugar cane in Taiwan, 106-07, 142-43, 146 1938 (Japan), 47 Sukarno, President, 17, 298, 299 Temporary Prefectural Committee for the Sumatra (Indonesia), 59, 340-41, 346, 348-49, Liquidation of Debts (Japan), 48 351 Tenancy, CB-5, 27, 28, 37, 84, 91; in British Sun, Lien Chuan, 114, 119, 123-24, 125, 126, Malaya, 61-62; human welfare and, 208-09; 127 in Korea, 49-53; in Nepal, 316-17; in Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Taiwan, 101-02 (SCAP), 6, 94, 95, 579 -in India: distribution of, 372; land improve- Swaminathan, M. S., 496n, 536-37, 538 ment compensation and, 370; reform, 377- Syndicate Bank (India), 421 80; regulation on, 358; restoration of, 458; Szechwan (China): characteristics of, 114, 115, system, 175-76; terms of, 180, 183; under- 130-31; crops in, 115-16; double occupa- ground, 398 tions in, 116; food in, 116; JCRR and, 137, -in Japan, 22-23, 41, 68; extent of, 72-73; 602 INDEX legislation on, 46, 83-84; reduction of, 84- Thorner, Daniel, 377n, 388n, 393n, 425-26, 86; reform, 45-46, 47; rise of, 73-74; terms 427n of, 77 Threshers. See Mechanization, agricultural Tenancy Act of 1885 (India), 33, 337, 391 Tinker, Hugh, 393n, 394 Tenancy Act of 1920 (India), 33 Tokugawa regime, 73, 284 Tenant conditions: in China, 115-17; in India, Tractors. See Mechanization, agricultural 336-40, 371-72, 454-55, 460-61, 476-78, Tube wells. See Irrigation 498-500; in Indonesia, 351; in Japan, 74-80, 571-72, 574-76, 579; in Korea, 52-53; in Uenoda, Setsuo, 42n, 55n Philippines, 326-30; in Nepal, 317, 318-19; Ukraine (Soviet Union), 148, 149 in South Vietnam, 245, 249, 250, 266-67, Umali, Dean, 327, 330, 331 300-02; in Taiwan, 95-100, 102-03 Undertenants in India, 33-34 Tenant eviction: in China, 122-23, 126; in United Nations, 293 Japan, 42, 47-48, 81, 83-84; in Korea, 52-53 United Provinces. See Uttar Pradesh -in India, 182-83, 378-79, 543; landlessness United States, 288; external aid of, 134, 136-41, and, 34, 383-87, 501, 502, 561--62; legisla- 145, 197, 250-51, 264-67, 268-70, 273-79, tion against, 337; reinstatement and, 166, 293; foreign policy of, 128, 129, 133-34, 170-71, 180; replacement and, 165 242, 278; Operations Mission in Vietnam, Tenants: in Korea, 50-51; in South Vietnam, 265, 266, 273-74 225, 233-34, 248; in Taiwan, 96-97, 99, Universal Church. See Cao Dai; Tac, Pham- 100-05. See also Records, tenancy; Share- Cong croppers; Tenant unions University of the Philippines, 325 -in India, 157, 172, 174-75, 191, 391, 435- Untouchables, 163, 165, 172, 173 36; conversion to owners, 380-81; pannaiyals Uprisings. See Conflict, political as, 165, 166, 168, 170-71; reform participa- usoms (South Vietnam), 265, 266, 273-74 tion by, 363-64, 393-95, 401, 483; under- Usurious Loans Act of 1918 (India), 31 ground, 398 Usurious Loans Amendment Act of 1934 -in Japan: expenditures of, 77-78; landlord (India), 32 relations with, 41-42, 46, 80, 83; policies of, Uttar Pradesh (India), 36; bullocks in, 479; 83-86; practices of, 83, 84, 89-91; respon- conditions in, 475-76; credit cooperatives sibilities of, 77; unrest of, 80-81 in, 478; fertilizer use in, 478-79; Green Tenant status: in Great Britain, 74; in In- Revolution in, 476, 478-79; irrigation in, donesia, 344-45, 351; in Japan, 72, 78, 83- 476-77; land ceilings in, 476; land con- 86, 364-65; in South Vietnam, 220, 231, solidation in, 480; land distribution in, 477; 245-46; in Soviet Union, 23, 25 land policy in, 202, 338; landlords in, 372n, -in India, 32-34, 155-56, 157-59, 191-92, 379; legislation in, 337, 381; mechanization 202, 208-09, 377, 455, 461; legislation on, absent in, 479-80; patwari in, 397n, 399; 33-34, 174, 176-77, 337, 391; social struc- rent in, 190, 194; revenue in, 377, 480-81; ture and, 393-95; undertenants and, 33-34. tenancy in, 377, 397, 476, 477-78; tube wells See also Tenant eviction in, 476-77, 480, 481; water shortage in, Tenant unions: in Japan, 81-82; in South 476, 481; wheat yields in, 479 Vietnam, 255-56, 305 Tenure, insecurity of: in Japan, 75; in Taiwan, Viet Minh, 258; attitude toward, 217, 225-26; 97-98 control by, 218-19, 260; education and, 222; Tenure, security of, 355, 356-57; in China, 116; influence of, 227, 233, 234-37, 248-49; land in Taiwan, 103. See also Occupancy rights policies of, 222, 224-25, 230; landlords and, -in India, 160, 202-03, 370, 565; legislation 224-25; political conflict with, 228-29; pro- on, 155, 180, 435, 457, 458-59, 542-43; tection against, 235-36; rent and, 217, 225; term for, 166, 170 support for, 259; soldiers of, 260; taxes and, Texan Industries (India), 437 220, 225, 259; tenants and, 225 Thailand, CB-20 Vietnam. See Central Vietnam; North Vietnam; Thapar, Ashok, 410n, 411n, 503n, 519n, 535n South Vietnam; specific entries Index 603 Village Land Reform Committees (Indonesia), in, 487-92, 563, CB-118; rent in, 380; rice 348 hoarding in, 558-59; tenure security meas- Village-level worker (VLW) in India, 407-09, ures in, 565-66 412-13 -food in: rationing of, 558, 559-60; shortage of, 557-66; smuggling of, 563-64 Wada, Hiroo, 286, 287 West Pakistan, 521 Wages. See Income Wheat: in India, 432-34, 443-44, 479, 494; War. See Conflict, political in Soviet Union, 26 Water supply in India, 172; rainfall, 37, 515; Working Group on Cooperative Farming shortage, 476, 481, 515, 516, 526-27. See (India), 387-88 also Drought in India; Green Revolution in World Bank, 21-22, 283-84, 367, 462, 475 India: Irrigation West Bengal (India): agricultural develop- Yagi, Yoshinosuke, 42n, 45n, 46n, 85n, 87n, 88n ment constraints in, 564-65; cooperatives Yoshida, Shigeru, 286, 287 in, 34; debt relief in, 187; drought in, 559; gruel kitchens in, 559-61; land grab in, 485- Zamindari, 187n, 362; abolition of, 190-92, 194, 86; land ownership in, 565; land sales in, 202, 376-77, 397, 471; rent under, 190-91, 562-63; landless conditions in, 561-62; land- 371, 376-77 lord land resumption in, 379; legislation in, Zamindari Abolition and Land Reform Act 33, 484; occupancy rights in, 192; refugees (India), 397 THE WORLD BANK AS CHIEF ARCHITECT Of the classic reform in Japan in 1946-48, Wolf Ladejinsky achieved renown as an expert on agriculture in Asia. He made significant contributions to the equally successful land reform in postwar Taiwan and encouraged and provided guidance to agrarian efforts in India beginning in the early 1950s. Wolf Ladejinsky was a 'prime mover in the less well-known land reform successes of South Vietnam in the late 1950s and helped incipient agrarian reform stirrings in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the early 1960s. He spent most of his last ten years fi&hting, against enormous odds, to direct reform efforts in India into more practical and constructive channels, trying at the same time to -generate the political will without which meaningful agrarian reform cannot be accomplished. To the governments and development institutions for which he worked during his highly productive career, Ladejinsky brought a keen appreciation of the welfare and dignity of' the individual. His concerns were the concerns of the submarginal farmer, the tenant, the sharecropper, and the landless laborer. His warm yet objective writings greatly affected the present understanding of the crucial role of agriculture in economic development, of the essential role of the small farmer in this process, and of the need for technological progress to be complemented 'by tenurial reform and a greater measure of social justice in the countryside. No Westerner struggled harder to improve the peasant con- dition in Asia than did Wolf Ladejinsky, who early on became a legend in his own time. This collection comprises a generous selection of Ladejinsky's best and most significant writings and spans his entire professional career, representing every Asian country in which he worked. Most of. the papers are previously unpub- lished and most have never before been available beyond the agencies and ministries he served. His works are a rich lode to be mined by all who are interested in the why and how of success and failure in economic development. This collection brings cogency and illumination to the human and institutional realities that challenge us with the unfinished business of agrarian reform. Louis J. Walinsky edited these papers and has himself had a long career in national economic, planning, programming, and policymaking. Since the mid- 1960s he has concentrated on public investment, industrial sector policy, and rural development for the World Bank. Mr. Walinsky is author of Economic Development in Burma: 1951-1960 and The Plnning and Execution of Economic Development. IsBN 0 19 920098 X Oxford University Press S in hardback Also available mn hardback